German finance minister says Scholz fired him after offering to provide Ukraine with Taurus missiles: details of the scandal

The collapse of the ruling coalition in Germany was triggered by internal disagreements over support for Ukraine. Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz's position, which prevents effective military assistance to Ukraine, is not liked by the coalition partners of the SPD, which he represents.

This was stated by former German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, according to the daily German newspaper Berliner Zeitung. Lindner assures: Scholz dismissed him because of his insistence on the need to transfer long-range Taurus missiles to Ukraine.

According to the former finance minister, a split is brewing in Germany's ruling coalition. It is mainly caused by disagreements over what policy Berlin should pursue towards Ukraine. In contrast, the Free Democratic Party (FDP – Ed.), of which Lindner is a member, has "never wavered" in its support for Ukraine, he said.

The former finance minister claims that before his resignation, Scholz insisted on allocating three billion euros to Ukraine. Instead, Lindner reminded the chancellor of the difficult financial situation in the country.

"Regarding Ukraine, a topic that was publicly discussed, we fought each other intensively. For free democrats, support for Ukraine has never been in question. Others have always hesitated. Free democrats never did. We also discussed this issue yesterday (November 6 – Ed.) at the coalition committee. It was a joint effort of the federal government at the international level to mobilize 50 billion dollars to support Ukraine. Everyone supported it. By the way, this project was also intended to provide protection in the event of a policy change in the United States," Lindner said.

At that time, the Treasury Secretary also offered to help Ukraine with something it needed even more than money: the transfer of Taurus cruise missiles, which Kyiv had long and unsuccessfully requested.

"The current Federal Chancellor made a proposal to allocate another three billion euros to Ukraine. But three billion euros would not have mattered, given the amount of funds available. I said in the coalition committee of the Free Democrats: if we want a different, stronger support for Ukraine, then an additional three billion euros are not needed. Then Germany should decide to equip Ukraine with the weapon system that Ukrainians need to defend their freedom, namely the Taurus weapon system. There was no desire to do this," the former government official emphasized.

Scholz rejected this proposal and dismissed Lindner.

The FDP has a similar position on Ukraine and, in particular, the transfer of Taurus missiles, as do its colleagues in the coalition from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU – Ed.). The leader of this political force, Friedrich Merz, recently called for an ultimatum to be given to Russia, and if it does not stop attacking civilian and infrastructure facilities in Ukraine within 24 hours, he would hand over Taurus missiles to Kyiv, allowing them to be used to destroy targets in the Russian Federation.

However, no agreement was reached. During the argument, Lindner said, he demanded that Scholz clarify all the issues with military assistance to Ukraine from the standpoint of the rank and file.

"Our country needs a government that not only holds office but can act. The right thing for our country would be an immediate vote of confidence and new elections. In a democracy, no one should be afraid of voters," said the former federal finance minister.

According to the former official, Germany needs new elections and a new government.

"Prompt new elections after the failure of the Scholz government are important not only for democracy. Our country should not waste time," Lindner said.

After it became known that Scholz had dismissed Lindner, his FDP colleagues, Federal Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann and Minister of Education Bettina Stark-Watzinger also resigned from their posts. Instead, Minister of Transport Volker Wiesing chose the latter over the former and will continue to lead the Ministry until new elections are held.

Earlier, the German chancellor candidate said that he was ready to give Ukraine Taurus missiles, but only on the condition that before Berlin starts transferring these missiles, it is necessary to give Russian dictator Vladimir Putin 24 hours to decide whether to stop attacking civilian and infrastructure facilities in our country.

Scholz himself has repeatedly and consistently stated that he is categorically against providing Ukraine with Taurus cruise missiles.

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