Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this Tuesday (06/11/2024) before the Lower House of the German Parliament that there can be no peace in Ukraine as long as the country remains divided with a part occupied by Russia. “Divided Europe was never peaceful and divided Germany was never happy,” he said, applauded in the Bundestag before Chancellor Olaf Scholz and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, among other senior German officials.
Other deputies, however, such as the majority of those from the far-right populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and a radical left formation, boycotted, by absenting, Zelensky’s speech, who warned about pro-Russian rhetoric in Europe. The bench of 77 AfD deputies was practically empty and only four of them were present. “We refuse to listen to a speaker in camouflage clothing,” the formation’s leadership explained in a statement, stating that “Ukraine does not need a president of war but a president of peace.”
The 10 deputies of the radical left party BSW, recently created and with a sovereignist line, also left the chamber, with a critical speech about migration and the supply of weapons to kyiv. This group said it wanted to send “a signal of solidarity to all Ukrainians who want an immediate ceasefire and a negotiated solution.”
Zelensky said that “we do everything, absolutely everything, to not allow a wall to emerge between the parts of our country.” Ukrainians who have defended their homes and lost family members deserve “a dignified end to the war, an end that leaves no doubt about who has won,” while Russia must be held accountable for its crimes, he emphasized. “The time for compromises passed (…) the moment Putin burned our cities,” he concluded. And he stressed that Russia will only be able to “heal” if it assumes historical responsibility for it and that if there are remnants of the conflict anywhere, “the war will return.”
Zelensky is on an official visit to Berlin for an international conference on the reconstruction of Ukraine, at which Olaf Scholz also called for more anti-aircraft defenses for the country. The Ukrainian president expressed his concern about the good electoral results of formations “with radical pro-Russian slogans.” He is “dangerous for his country,” he said at a press conference with Chancellor Scholz.
lgc (afp, efe)
