German lawmakers speak out against Pope’s call for “white flag”
Pravda Ukraine
MPs from the German governing coalition, Marie-Agnes Straka-Zimmermann of the Free Democrats and Katrin Göring-Eckardt of the Greens, have spoken out against Pope Francis’s statement that Ukraine should have the “courage of the white flag” and negotiate with Russia to end the war.
Source: Deutsche Presse-Agentur (DPA), a German news agency; European Pravda
Details: “Before Ukrainian victims wave the white flag, the Pope has to make loud and clear calls for cruel Russian criminals to take down their pirate flag, the symbol of death and Satan,” Straka-Zimmermann said in an interview with Funke Mediengruppe.
Straka-Zimmermann, who heads the Bundestag defence committee, also noted that the Pope has failed to criticise Patriarch Kirill of Moscow from the Russian Orthodox Church.
“Why in the name of God is he not condemning verbal incitements to kill Ukrainian people made by Kirill, the head of the Russian Orthodox Church and the former KGB agent?” Straka-Zimmermann asked.
She added that she, as a Catholic, was embarrassed that the Pope refrained from condemning Kirill.
Meanwhile, Göring-Eckardt said in an interview with RND that no one wants peace more than Ukraine does. She added that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin who can really help achieve this peace.
“It is Putin who can immediately stop this war and suffering, not Ukraine. Those who demand that Ukraine just surrender give the aggressor that which he claimed illegally, and thus agree to the destruction of Ukraine,” she said.
Background:
- Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has responded to Pope Francis’s suggestion that Ukraine should have what he called the courage of the “white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
- In response to Pope Francis’s statement, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said that the Pope should address Russian President Vladimir Putin and urge him to withdraw his occupation forces from Ukraine.
- On 9 March, Reuters reported that Pope Francis said in an interview this February that Ukraine should have what he called “the courage of the white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia.
- The Vatican later clarified the Pope’s words, stressing that he called for a ceasefire and the resumption of negotiations, not the surrender of Ukraine, and emphasising the Pope’s words that “Negotiation is never a surrender.”
- Latvian President Edgars Rinkēvičs said, in response to the Pope’s comment, that “one cannot surrender to evil”.
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