‘Media focus’ forces German defence minister to resign
GERMANY’S defence minister resigned yesterday, blaming the media for a campaign against her that she claimed distracted from the work of the armed forces.
Christine Lambrecht said that the “months-long media focus on me as a person” had led her to resign, saying that “objective reporting” on the armed forces had become impossible.
Bild Zeitung, Germany’s top-selling newspaper, responded by accusing her of an “unparalleled record” of failures since taking on the job.
“Did she show self-criticism? Not a bit of it. Nor did she mention Russia’s war in Ukraine in her resignation letter,” the newspaper said.
The 57-year-old’s time as head of the ministry is widely viewed in Germany as a disaster, with critics accusing her of wasting valuable months in which the job of rebuilding the armed forces should have started.
Her first blunder came last January when she announced the supply of 500 military helmets to Ukraine.
The delivery was met with derision, with Vitali Klitschko, mayor of Kyiv, asking whether pillows would come next. After the war started, Ms Lambrecht repeatedly put the brakes on weapons deliveries, claiming that the German army did not have enough stocks of its own to help out.
At the same time, critics that say she was too slow in using a special budget of €100billion (£88billion)to order new ammunition and replenish weaponry that had been sent to Ukraine. The final straw was a video posted to Instagram over New Year in which she could barely be heard over the sound of fireworks. Ms Lambrecht failed to mention the human toll of the war while saying it had provided her with the chance to “gain interesting impressions”.
Olaf Scholz, the chancellor, must find a replacement before a key meeting of Nato defence ministers later this week.