Ulrike Franke Profile picture
Jan 24 5 tweets 3 min read
Kick-off at #hbsicherheit Handelsblatt Sicherheitskonferenz with @tobiaslindner
Rheinmetall chairman Papperger at #hbsicherheit: “Germany has more military industrial capacities* than the US (?), but we cannot produce without orders. And we don’t have orders.”

*speaking about artillery ammunition, not sure whether he was referring specifically to that.
Good point by @ClaudMajor : “the Gepard deliveries were technically an ‘Alleingang’ (going at it alone). And a good one!”
Answer @tobiaslindner “But discussed with allies”
Major “Yes, but no equivalent deliveries like we now seem to require for the Leopard”.
True.
#hbsicherheit
Puh.
Inspector of the German Army Alfons Mais: “On 24 February, the Bundeswehr was like an athlete doing the splits on the back of two chairs. Today, both chairs are being pulled.”
#hbsicherheit

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More from @RikeFranke

Jan 25
I’m not doing interviews today - mainly as I wanna spend time with 👶 - but also because I want to make sure I have all the information before commenting.
Some clearly don’t share that concern… here’s a quick list of incorrect statements I’ve heard today on the #Leopard deal.
No, German support for Ukraine hasn’t been “modest” (French radio).
Germany is the third (fourth if you count EU institutions) provider of aid, including military aid. Image
No, the German government didn’t change (or break) a law which forbids the export of weapons into war zones. There is a self-imposed rule not to do that - but it has an exception for a self-defence war under article 51 UN charter. Image
Read 6 tweets
Jan 14
On 27 February, Olaf Scholz held his famous #Zeitenwende speech. More than ten months have passed since then. What’s the verdict? Have times turned in German defence and security policy? My assessment of where we are at the moment - the good, the bad, and the ugly.
(thread)
The good:
1) German support for Ukraine.
Yes, despite all criticism, German support for Ukraine, financially but also militarily has been substantial and important.
2) Energy diversification. Germany, famously dependent on Russia for its gas supply, went from buying over half of its gas from Russia in 2021 to not buying any Russian gas since September 2022.
Read 13 tweets
Jan 13
Oha.
Bild reports exclusively that German defence minister Christine Lambrecht is planning to resign.
If that’s true, I’d say today’s Spiegel story was the straw that broke the camel’s back. bild.de/politik/inland…
Btw, I have an article coming out tomorrow at 9am which mentions her as defence minister, so I hope she’s not resigning tonight.
This is the Spiegel story I’m referring to.
#Lambrecht
Read 4 tweets
Jan 13
Illustration of ⁦@derspiegel⁩ title story this week.
#Bundeswehr
“Ridicule and malice is something the Bundeswehr has gotten used to, but it hasn't been as bad as now for a long time.”

spiegel.de/politik/deutsc…
Read 6 tweets
Jan 11
I think there is a fundamental misunderstanding in the German debate about offence and defence (Angriff und Verteidigung), which explains some strange takes.
Short 🧵
Early on we had discussions about offensive and defensive weapons, and now, with the #Leopard2 combat tank discussion we hear again how Ukrainian defence is fine, but offence we (Germany/the west) cannot support.
But I think people are getting the levels wrong here. Ukraine was attacked. EVERYTHING Ukraine does atm is DEFENSIVE. Ukraine is defending its sovereignty, territory, and people.
Read 6 tweets
Jan 1
This is so unbearably tone-deaf. “There is war in Europe” - so I am standing in the middle of new year’s fireworks going off. Boom.

“There is war in Europe … for me this meant meeting some great people”.

Have they lost their mind in Berlin?
Most of the time when there are political communication disasters, one can see the intention (which went wrong). But this, from the setting, to the text and message, to the sound, is a catastrophe. With no good will can I come up with what they were trying to achieve.
#Lambrecht
I’ve translated the relevant bits (as close to the original as I could, hence some clunky phrasing).
I’m sorry, this is disastrous.
Read 6 tweets

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