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Scholz’s party included ban on Taurus long-range missiles for Ukraine in its pre-election program

Germany’s ruling Social Democratic Party has formalized opposition to sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine while facing their lowest poll numbers in years.

byOlena Mukhina

16/12/2024

2 minute read

A Taurus missile, illustrative image. Photo via Wikimedia.

Scholz’s party included ban on Taurus long-range missiles for Ukraine in its pre-election program

The Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) has excluded any possibility of transferring Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine in its pre-election program, DPA news agency, which obtained a draft of the SPD’s pre-election program, reports.

Since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Germany has emerged as one of Ukraine’s most significant supporters, providing Patriot air defense systems and other weapons. However, Berlin has been hesitant to provide Taurus long-range cruise missiles to Ukraine needed to hit targets deeper within Russian-occupied territories and disrupt Russian military operations far behind the front lines.

According to the report, the party fully supports German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s current position on sending Tauruses to Kyiv.

At the same time, Scholz’s party members back the future deployment of US long-range missiles on German territory and the policy of increasing defense spending to at least two percent of the gross domestic product.

The SPD is also committed to continuing its previous obligations to deport unwanted migrants. The work on the pre-election program is planned to be completed by 17 December.

Currently, the SPD is the ruling party in Germany, but recent polls indicate that the party may lose power after the Bundestag elections scheduled for February next year, Deutsche Welle writes.

Studies show that 17 percent of respondents are ready to vote for the Social Democrats, which is significantly lower compared to the electoral support for the conservative CDU/CSU bloc, which holds 31 percent.

Meanwhile, Tino Chrupalla, co-chair of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) German party, has called on the government to recognize Russia as the winner in the war against Ukraine.

He also acknowledged that his party is willing to consider the Kremlin’s stance even on issues such as NATO actions, of which Russia is not a member.

The AfD is gaining enough votes to potentially become the second-largest party in the German federal parliament.

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