Germany: Left Party lead candidates decry Afghanistan "disaster" at campaign event in Marburg

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The top candidates of the Left Party, Janine Wissler and Dietmar Bartsch, said that German involvement in Afghanistan had ended in ‘disaster,’ at a campaign event in Marburg on Thursday.
“We have said that war does not create peace. This war is not about human rights, it is not about women’s rights. War is never about democracy and human rights, but always about power and influence and it was wrong to start this war in Afghanistan,” said Wissler.
Bartsch also slammed German arms exports to ‘crisis areas’ and said that NATO membership ‘currently means rearmament.’
Wissler added that climate change was also an important intergenerational issue.
“We must act now, far too much time has been lost. We must achieve the 1.5 degree target if we want our children and grandchildren to have a future worth living on this planet,” she said.
Speaking on foreign policy, Bartsch also advocated for greater cooperation with Russia.
“We want a system of collective security that includes Russia. It does not make sense to go into confrontation with Russia,” he said, adding “A clever social democrat once said that change comes through rapprochement.”
The Left Party are currently polling at around 6 percent ahead of Germany’s general election set for September, 26, only just above the five percent hurdle required for entry into the Bundestag.

TRANSLATIONS:

SOT, Janine Wissler, Linke lead candidate (German): “In recent weeks, we have all looked to Afghanistan, to Kabul, and seen how dramatically the situation there has developed. 20 years of war in Afghanistan, deployment of the Bundeswehr, deployment of NATO troops. The Left has always rejected this deployment. We have said that war does not create peace. This war is not about human rights, it is not about women’s rights. War is never about democracy and human rights, but always about power and influence and it was wrong to start this war in Afghanistan. Now we can see what a disaster it has ended in.”

SOT, Janine Wissler, Linke chancellor candidate (German): “Dear friends, we have seen this summer that climate change is not some distant horror scenario that will come upon us one day, but the consequences of climate change have long been real. We are experiencing this with forest fires, droughts, floods and heavy rainfall. This also shows that climate protection is not more expensive than climate protection, because the consequences of climate change threaten livelihoods, devastate entire regions and endanger human lives. We must act now, far too much time has been lost. We must achieve the 1.5 degree target if we want our children and grandchildren to have a future worth living on this planet.”

SOT, Dietmar Bartsch, Linke lead candidate (German): “The fact that equipment and arms have been transported to Afghanistan this year, all that is now in the hands of the Taliban. There are now arms exports to neighbouring Pakistan, to Qatar. No one knows where these arms exports are going. Germany has exported 22.5 billion, for €22.5 billion of armaments in this legislative period. What a madness. These weapons are not display specimens, but death is being exported. Corporations are earning bloody profits from these arms exports, we will never go along with that, we will criticise it most clearly. This cannot go on. Stop exporting weapons to crisis areas. An end to arms exports in general, ladies and gentlemen.”

SOT, Dietmar Bartsch, Linke lead candidate (German): “That, by the way, is the core of a NATO commitment. This is silly with this commitment nonsense. What’s the point of that? Are Janine and I supposed to go to Brussels, kneel down and say we’re committed, or what? What nonsense, I want to talk about what NATO really means and NATO currently means rearmament. NATO means Afghanistan disaster. That has to be changed.”

SOT, Dietmar Bartsch, Linke lead candidate (German): “This must be changed. We want a system of collective security that includes Russia. It does not make sense to go into confrontation with Russia, and I say this in the year that marks the 80th anniversary of Hitler’s Germany’s invasion of Russia and the Soviet Union. Some of the speeches made in the Bundestag are completely inappropriate. Yes, there is much to criticise about Vladimir Putin’s policies, and yet we must promote, for sensible economic exchange, for human contacts. A clever social democrat once said that change comes through rapprochement. That would be the right way, not confrontation.”

#Germany #GermanElections #DieLinke #Afghanistan

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