Leading politicians from the Social Democrats, a partner in Germany's ruling coalition, have called for scrapping all US nuclear weapons in the country, but the other parties remain opposed to such a move, EDNews.net reports citing Sputnik.
Members of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) have scorned a recently renewed call by politicians from the junior partner in the coalition, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), to withdraw US nuclear arms from German territory.
"The SPD is in total nirvana about security policy, CDU member of parliament Patrick Sensburg was quoted as saying by Handelsblatt.
According to him, the Social Democrats forget “that US nuclear weapons are primarily for our protection” and, if the politicians persist with their calls, “our international partners will doubt Germany’s ability to fulfill its role in the future, within the transatlantic security scheme.”
The comments by SPD politicians were deplored not only by the CDU but also by the Free Democratic Party (FDP).
"The demand from SPD parliamentary leader Mützenich is the wrong signal at the wrong time… It is naive to believe that Germany would have the same influence on NATO's nuclear strategy if US nuclear weapons were withdrawn," DW quoted the FDP defense affairs spokeswoman Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann as saying.
The spokeswoman added that Germany must quickly decide on a successor to the Tornado aircraft currently used by Germany's military if it was to fulfill its responsibilities as part of the alliance.
The escalating debate around the presence of US nuclear arms in Germany was recently reignited when two senior figures in the Social Democratic Party talked of the need to scrap the American weapons.
"Nuclear arms on German soil do not strengthen our security, quite the contrary. It is time Germany ruled out them being stationed here in future,” the SPD's parliamentary leader Rolf Muetzenich was quoted by Tagesspiegel daily.
His view was echoed by the party's co-president Norbert Walter-Borjans.
My position is clear against their being stationed (in Germany), being made available and of course the use of nuclear arms," he was cited as saying by Sunday's Frankfurter Allgemeine.
