5 months ago
21
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Thursday morning is addressing the lower house of his country's parliament, the Bundestag, in a short statement on national security.
The briefing is expected to touch on German decisions regarding the ongoing war in Ukraine, as well as the immigration and deportation policies in the wake of a deadly stabbing by an Afghan immigrant.
Change in policy over Ukraine
Scholz's remarks come just days after a dramatic change of course regarding Ukraine, in which he followed Washington's lead by giving Kyiv permission to use German weapons to strike legitimate military targets inside Russia.
Scholz had been loath to allow Kyiv to do so for fear of escalating the war as Russia loudly threatens Ukraine's allies of grave consequences should they help Kyiv defend itself.
Increased attacks on eastern Ukraine's Kharkiv region launched from sites inside Russia, however, forced a change in strategy, with Scholz — like US President Joe Biden — acceding to Ukrainian requests for permission to strike at aggressor Moscow's military assets beyond its borders.
Prior to his address, Scholz said the decision had been carefully deliberated, adding, "We are certain that it will not contribute to an escalation, because — as the US president has also said — it is only a matter of being able to defend a major city like Kharkiv, for example."
Deportations front and center for Germans at home
Scholz is also expected to address the contentious issue of migrant deportations in his remarks. At issue is whether or not Germany will resume deportations to countries such as Afghanistan and Syria.
Berlin had refrained from deportations to such countries as these were deemed unsafe.
But the issue returned to the agenda last week when a 25-year-old Afghan national stabbed several people at an anti-Islam rally in the southern city of Mannheim. Several people were injured in the attack and a police officer was killed.
js/ab (AP, dpa)
