Christine Lambrecht had been singled out for mismanagement since the start of the Russian invasion

German Defence Minister resigns amid debate over sending tanks to Ukraine

photo_camera PHOTO/ARCHIVO - Former German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht

German Defence Minister Christine Lambrecht announced her resignation on Monday after two weeks of being the target of criticism and leaving open the debate over her succession in the midst of the war in Ukraine and with pressure on Germany to contribute more heavy military equipment to the conflict. 

"Today I asked the Federal Chancellor to step down as Federal Defence Minister. The media's focus on me makes professional reporting and discussion of soldiers, the Federal Army and security policy issues difficult," the minister said in a statement. 

The resignation message has earned Lambrecht further criticism for blaming the media for her resignation. "She doesn't even know how to resign," headlined a commentary in the business newspaper Handelsblatt, which accused her of pointing the finger at the press and not at her own mistakes. Other media have also expressed themselves in similar terms. 

Scholz, for his part, thanked Lambrecht for her work and said that today was not the day to talk about succession. Deputy government spokeswoman Christine Hoffmann had said earlier that the name of Lambrecht's successor would be known "soon", without giving any further details. 

One of the successor's tasks will be to decide whether to send Leopard armoured combat vehicles to Ukraine, after Germany has already provided Gepard and Marder armoured defence vehicles. Berlin insists on going it alone and making any announcements of arms deliveries to Ukraine together with other partners. 

The trigger for a barrage of criticism that had already been raining down on Lambrecht for months was a video recorded on New Year's Eve and posted on social media in which, amid the noise of New Year's firecrackers, she reviewed the year. 

Lambrecht, in the message, recalled that there was currently a war going on in Europe and said that this had given him many impressions and encounters with many people whom she wanted to thank. 

The video was seen as a sign of tactlessness and also of Lambrecht's lack of understanding of the responsibility involved in the career she was in charge of, and other episodes in his tenure began to be recalled with insistence.  

The Defence portfolio has always been difficult in peacetime, but even more so in wartime. Before the war began, but when Russian troops were already moving along the border, Lambrecht announced that 5,000 helmets would be sent to Ukraine, which was constantly asking the West for military assistance. 

Given the scale of the Russian threat, the announcement of the helmets lent itself to caricatures. Moreover, the helmets were slow in arriving, the war had already begun. The issue of the controversial helmets has been somewhat forgotten in the face of the subsequent dispatch of German military to Ukraine. 

Subsequently, in May 2022, what became known as the "helicopter case" came to light. Lambrecht was accompanied by her son by helicopter to a troop visit in northern Germany and then went on holiday together. 

A photo of her son in the helicopter, taken by Lambrecht, was posted on Instagram. Even if some saw the helicopter case as a minor detail, the situation was used as a starting point for criticising various aspects of Lambrecht's work. 

Her relationship with the troops was not ideal. It was said that she was too detached from the military and did too little to get into it, and that she did not organise enough meetings with the high command. 

At the end of 2022, criticism began to emerge that, despite the 100 billion euro fund for the German army, there was not enough ammunition for the armoured cars and defence systems being delivered to Ukraine. 

In the wake of all this, calls for Lambrecht's resignation began to emerge from the ranks of the opposition and from the country's leading newspapers, saying that especially in wartime someone more competent was needed for the job. 

It is not yet clear whether Scholz will resort to replacing Lambrecht alone - ideally he would need a woman, a Social Democrat from southwest Germany to avoid upsetting the balance in the Council of Ministers - or whether he will reshuffle his team more broadly. 

Among the names on the table are Eva Högl, the parliamentary commissioner for military affairs - a woman and a Social Democrat but from Berlin - and Marie-Agner Strack-Zimmermann, the Liberal Party (FDP) Defence spokesperson, as well as the co-chairman of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Lars Klingbeil. 

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