https://www.politico.eu/article/germ...ck-zimmermann/
Germany faces a political crisis over sending Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine
BERLIN — Germany's governing coalition is splintering over whether to send Ukraine its powerful Taurus cruise missiles.
On Tuesday, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, a member of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and chair of the Bundestag's defense committee, said she'll support an opposition Christian Democrat measure that explicitly calls for sending the missiles to Kyiv.
"I will personally vote for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group's motion in the plenum this week, as it will explicitly include the Taurus demand," she told POLITICO.
The FDP-Greens-Social Democrat coalition is putting forward a resolution on arming Ukraine that calls for "the delivery of additional necessary long-range weapons systems and ammunition to enable Ukraine to carry out international law-compliant, targeted attacks on strategically important targets deep in the rear area of the Russian aggressor."
The capabilities mentioned in the coalition resolution "can only mean Taurus cruise missiles. However, the SPD failed to mention them by name," Strack-Zimmermann
tweeted….
Strack-Zimmermann flagged her intention to also vote for the resolution put forward by the opposition on a Tuesday morning flight from Greece with Defense Minister Boris Pistorius.
She blamed the "stubbornness of the chancellor's office" for the absence of a Taurus reference — "it lacks exactly one word" — in the government's resolution.
The Greens have also backed sending the Taurus to Ukraine, and the party's MPs could join Strack-Zimmermann in supporting the opposition resolution later this week….
"Ukraine is fighting for our peace, our freedom and our future in Europe," Strack-Zimmermann tweeted.