“Here privately” says her Instagram page. But can a Federal Minister of Defense only speak “privately” into a camera? When she talks about the war and her experiences in the war year 2022 and thanks soldiers, then a Federal Defense Minister is no longer in the private sphere. Christine Lambrecht (SPD) now has to take all the more malice and criticism, even if this is nothing new for the already controversial minister in the traffic light cabinet.
Why is? Lambrecht’s video appeared on her personal Instagram channel, which is verified with a blue tick, has almost 17,000 followers and on which Lambrecht also reports on her work in parallel with the Ministry of Defense account.
It was apparently recorded at the Frankfurter Tor in the Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg district of Berlin, on the sidewalk. Firecrackers and New Year’s rockets not only drown out the street noise, the minister’s speech can only be understood with difficulty. A microphone was obviously not plugged into her or it is not working.
The firecrackers dominate the clip in which the Minister of Defense speaks briefly about the war: “A war is raging in the middle of Europe”. Then she continues: “There were a lot of special impressions that I was able to gain from this. Many, many encounters with interesting, great people. I would like to say a heartfelt thank you for that.”
Many German and international politicians, journalists and experts react to the minister’s unprofessional and insensitive appearance. The criticism grew especially on New Year’s Eve, when the video went viral on Twitter. “It’s so unbearably insensitive,” wrote security expert Ulrike Franke of the European Council on Foreign Relations think tank. There is war in Europe and Lambrecht says that she has met great people. “Have they lost their minds in Berlin?”
Florian Hahn, defense policy spokesman for the Union faction, responded on Twitter: “This video speaks for itself. What an embarrassment, what a miscast. The Bundeswehr deserves better!”
The CDU politician Armin Laschet, who knows from his own experience about the devastating effect of clumsy video recordings, referred to the formulation of the security expert Franke in a tweet: “Have they lost their mind in Berlin?”, He repeated and continued: “Is Does the Federal Chancellor really care nothing about the impact of Germany in Europe and the world?”.
CDU defense politician Serap Güler indirectly called for Lambrecht’s dismissal: “She has already proven with her “5000 helmets” number that she has no sense of correct communication. The speech about the war with New Year’s Eve firecrackers in the background only tops off her series of embarrassments. Therefore: Every additional minute in which the Federal Chancellor still holds on to this minister and thus further damages the reputation of our country goes to his account.”
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