Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann

Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann


German defense hawk sets sights on EU job
Story by Marcel F;rstenau, William Noah Glucroft, Deutsche Welle • 03/12/24
n re
s chair of the defense committee, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann is one of Germany's most recognized supporters of Ukraine and of bolstering Germany's own military. Now she hopes to bring her views to Brussels.You know campaign season in the European Union is kicking into higher gear when major national figures start making supranational moves.

2023 GMC Sierra Clearance - Local New GMC Clearance
imotors
2023 GMC Sierra Clearance - Local New GMC Clearance
Ad
Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, who has argued for more aggressive support for Ukraine than the chancellor she works under, will be the Spitzenkandidat (lead candidate) for the pan-European liberal party in European parliamentary elections.

13 members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), which Strack-Zimmermann's German Free Democratic Party (FDP) belongs to, confirmed their support this week.
"ALDE Party believes that Marie-Agnes has a strong and suitable profile that is needed to convey our liberal message in the European campaign," the group said in a statement. The pick "reinforces our liberal commitment to the safety of our continent and to support Ukraine at any cost," it added.

Strack-Zimmermann already topped the FDP's list for running under the ALDE umbrella for European elections, which take place in early June.

$200 Target GiftCard on Us
Verizon 5G Home Internet
$200 Target GiftCard on Us
Ad
Seeking political refuge in Brussels

The European Parliament's political groups are organized by political affiliation rather than nationality.

EU Commission President Ursula Leyen's European People's Party is expected to again emerge the strongest from the quinquennial election. The liberal Renew Europe group, which ALDE largely aligns with, is in third and could drop to fourth or fifth in the next parliament.

The projected loss of seats is still better than the electoral prospects of Strack-Zimmermann's FDP back in Germany. Already the smallest in the three-party coalition, opinion polls show the liberals flirting with the 5% hurdle required to hold seats in Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, at all.

With Strack-Zimmermann's star rising as her party's falls, it could be an opportune time to flee national politics by seeking refuge at the European level. It is not an uncommon move. Germany's Martin Schulz and Katharina Barley, both well-known Social Democrats, are recent examples of national figures oscillating between Berlin and Brussels.

Strack-Zimmermann has made a name for herself as the chair of the Bundestag's defense committee. A regular visitor to Kyiv, she is within German politics one of the loudest advocates for Ukraine's defense against Russia's full-scale invasion. That has made her a fierce critic of the government she and her party belong to.

A hawk among chickens

In several instances, most recently on the matter of Taurus cruise missiles, Chancellor Olaf Scholz has blocked a more aggressive supply of weapons.

"For God's sake, what is the chancellor waiting for?" Strack-Zimmermann tweeted in September. "He alone is blocking this decision within the coalition. It is irresponsible."

All these months later, Scholz has not budged on the issue. If anything, he has dug his heels in against rising criticism that he is too scared of Russia. Strack-Zimmermann, by contrast, appears unapologetically hawkish.

"Ukraine needs Europe, and Europe needs Ukraine so that we can continue to live in peace and freedom in the future," she told a friendly audience of fellow FDP members at a party congress in January.

While she has said she is open to some kind of settlement, she also said that "diplomacy will only be successful from a position of strength. Submission is not peace."

Thinking differently on defense

Strack-Zimmermann's presence in Brussels would dovetail with a renewed sense of urgency about common European defense. Earlier this month, the European Commission published its first-ever European Defense Industrial Strategy, which aims to boost and underwrite common defense production and procurement. The bloc has struggled on this front, most notably failing to deliver Ukraine a promised one million artillery shells, as some of its members put national economic interests above defense commitments.

The strategy document is one step towards a longer-term goal of making the European Union for self-sufficient in self-defense. Strack-Zimmermann has gone as far as to float working towards an EU army, something some of her fellow European hawks have warned could undermine NATO as the alliance of choice. So far the Commission has only spoken of better coordinating the EU's 27 militaries, not supplanting them with an overarching force.

The risk a second Donald Trump presidency poses to the transatlantic alliance is the other point putting pressure on the future of EU defense policy. Trump has threatened to back off supporting both Ukraine and US NATO allies if re-elected in November.

Strack-Zimmermann has called the constant hand-wringing "problematic," and should instead be a call to action. Given Germany's standing as Europe's largest economy and one of the world's biggest, she has wanted Germany to "do even more for Ukraine."

That is a message she is likely to take to Brussels, as she pivots from the national legislature to the supranational one.

Edited by Rina Goldenberg

While you're here: Every Tuesday, DW editors round up what is happening in German politics and society. You can sign up here for the weekly email newsletter Berlin Briefing.

Copyright 2024 DW.COM, Deutsche Welle. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.