Rumors are growing that Germany’s Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht is considering resigning after several members of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) demanded her departure from the government after she was embroiled in a scandal over a New Year’s Eve speech on Ukraine.
Several German media, including the daily ‘Bild’, the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and the NTV news channel, reported Friday night that Lambrecht was considering this possibility. A Defense Ministry spokesman told the DPA news agency that these are «rumors» which they would not comment on.
The aforementioned agency has learned that the minister could announce her resignation next week, although it has not received answers from the spokespersons of the Federal Government and the Social Democratic Party (SPD), which presides over the governing coalition.
«Defense experts all over the world are dumbfounded at how shameful this is and the lack of professionalism of a minister of our country,» CDU leader Friedrich Merz went so far as to say, as reported by the Tagesschau news channel.
The Defense Ministry has also been in the spotlight after the chairwoman of the German Parliament’s Defense Committee, Marie-Agnès Strack-Zimmermann, put pressure on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz to deliver more tanks to Ukraine.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
