Polen will Deutschland um Erlaubnis für Leopard-Lieferung bitten [Poland wants to ask Germany for permission to deliver Leopard]
Polen will Deutschland um Erlaubnis für Leopard-Lieferung bitten [Poland wants to ask Germany for permission to deliver Leopard]
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Translated with DeepL:
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki says Warsaw will ask Berlin for permission to supply Leopard tanks. If Germany refuses, Warsaw will make its own decisions. The Latvian government is also keeping up the pressure.
The Polish government plans to ask Germany for permission to supply Leopard tanks to Ukraine. That’s what Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said Monday.
The head of government did not comment on when the request would be made. He said Poland is building a coalition of countries ready to send Leopards. If Germany does not give permission for the delivery to Ukraine, Warsaw will make its own decisions, Morawiecki said.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) had earlier said the German government would not block a Polish decision to supply Leopard battle tanks to Ukraine. Asked about this statement, Morawiecki said it made sense to exert pressure. The German minister’s words, he said, were a spark of hope that Germany might even join the coalition
Latvian president calls for Leopard delivery
Latvian President Egils Levits also called on Germany to agree to the delivery of Leopard 2 battle tanks. “Everything necessary must be done so that Ukraine can defend itself,” Levits told Deutschlandfunk radio on Monday. The delivery is also necessary for European security at the same time, he stressed. That was an “almost unanimous position of Europe,” he said.
“If a state then does not participate, that is of course a problem,” Levits said. He said he could not understand why Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) might include the German population’s skepticism about the battle tank deliveries in his decision. Ukraine is under “dramatic pressure,” he said. The country could therefore not be deprived of the battle tanks.
Over the weekend, Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics had already increased the pressure on the German government – according to his own statements also on behalf of his counterparts from Estonia and Lithuania. As a leading European power, Germany has a special responsibility, Rinkevics wrote on Twitter.
Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)
But reddit told me that already happened and germany was blocking poland all the time??
*Der polnische Ministerpräsident Mateusz Morawiecki erklärt, Warschau werde Berlin um Erlaubnis für die Lieferung von Leopard-Panzern bitten.*
There we go. There still hasn’t been a request submitted.
Scholz is handling the MBT ordeal poorly but it’s hard to blame the Germans for refusing to grant permission when it hasn’t been requested.
Two weeks of constantly complaining about Germany not allowing Leopard 2 export only to reveal that no request for export had been made…
Well, if we go from a purely political point of view, Scholz is doing what’s best for his country, probably. The Germans heavily rely/relied on Russian gas, and angering Putin would probably reduce their energy source to 0. That’s a major economic catastrophe. I think when winter is over, the decision is easier to make.
On another note, the German army isn’t exactly in the best state. I doubt they can actually miss a lot of operational Leopards. Ukraine wants 300 of them in total, but getting even 100 would be a stretch.
I think those tanks should be delivered, but I have reservations on the practicalities.
> **Baerbock weicht aus**
> Bei einem EU-Treffen am Montag wich Baerbock der Frage aus, ob die Bundesregierung einen Antrag auf die Lieferung von Leopard-Kampfpanzern aus anderen Ländern an die Ukraine wirklich schnell bewilligen würde.
> Damit antwortete sie auch nicht auf die Frage, ob sie am Sonntagabend in einem Interview für die Bundesregierung sprach, als sie zu polnischen Plänen für Leopard-2-Lieferungen sagte: „Wir wurden bisher nicht gefragt und (…) wenn wir gefragt würden, würden wir dem nicht im Wege stehen.“
Well I hope all of the people shitting on Germany feel bad now. Man the comments on some subreddits were a clown fest.
Can someone explain to me why Germany is so hesitant to send the leopard? I know it’s not the cost considering the UK which has lower GDP than that of Germany can still afford to send military equipment despite its economic downturn.