You would be hard-pressed these days to have a prolonged conversation with any European policymaker without referring to the conflict in Ukraine. A war of territorial expansion has returned to the continent, unseen since 1945. As artillery ravage towns and cities across the Donbass, Western leaders have gathered once again at the Hotel Bayerischer Hof for the annual Munich Security Conference, the largest of its kind and the first since Russia’s invasion last February, to discuss the future of European security.
For those attending the conference this year, there is a palpable sense of witnessing history in the making. Europe, in the words of Scholz, Macron, and other leaders at Munich, is at an existential turning point. Sitting at the heart is Germany, an often reluctant leader with regards to European defence and security due to its militaristic history.
It is on this occasion that I sat down with Franziska Brantner, German State Secretary of Economic Affairs and Climate Change and a member of the governing Green Party at her office in Berlin as part of our coverage of the Security Conference. A rising figure within her party, Brantner is overseeing a country in transformation. We talked about Zeitenwende (turning point), the state of German democracy, and her country’s endeavours to chart a greener future for itself and for Europe.
Countering pacifism
According to Brantner, Germany’s actions are guided by three principles. First, there will be support for Ukraine for “however long it takes”. Secondly, Germany will not become a direct participant in the war. Thirdly, it will only act in conjunction with its partners. Regarding the latter point, Brantner noted that she has internalised the idea that it is better to “go in sync with our allies” from a very early age as a European, a subtle contrast to the approach often taken by Germany’s Gallic neighbours.
For Germany, there is also the added weight of history. “German history in what is [known] today [as] Ukraine was terrible. The Nazis pillaged and destroyed that country. For me, from that history, I draw a lesson that we have to help that country exist,” says the state secretary, adding “when I see Holocaust survivors fleeing to Germany because they’re persecuted again, [it is another reason why] we have to stand by Ukraine.”
Yet, it is this very history that has led to the persistent pacifism that runs deep in Brantner’s country. An estimated 10,000 anti-war protestors descended upon Munich’s Odeonsplatz, only 500 metres away from the Conference venue with signs that read: ‘weder Putin noch NATO’, meaning ‘neither Putin nor NATO’. Polls have also shown Germany as being one of the countries in Europe with the highest levels of scepticism towards supplying offensive military aid to Ukraine.
When I asked her to address the concerns of these Germans, Brantner forcefully rejected their premise, warning that “you cannot make peace with an imperialist government who is trying to erase a nation. [If you do that], imperialism would continue.” She went on to note that “in Germany, we’re constantly overestimating Putin and underestimating our own capabilities.” The pacifists, she argued, were on the wrong side of history.
Nonetheless, this rising star in German politics is less convinced about the futility of peace through trade; the idea that economic relations can facilitate security and stability in international politics. “I seriously believe that we should not give up on the idea of trade with countries across the world and not become fearful of exchanging”, says Brantner, echoing the former German Chancellor Angela Merkel. She raised the example of China where trade brought billions of people out of poverty, calling it a force for good she believes should not be underestimated.
Brantner comes across as someone unlikely to mince her words, a quality which journalists have found to be rare among Germany’s governing class. Yet, there are still issues she’s unwilling to comment on, specifically with regard to the controversy surrounding the explosion of the Nord Stream pipelines, refusing to directly address a report from American journalist Seymour Hirsch that alleged the US and pro-Western groups were responsible for the explosion. That report was followed up by a New York Times investigation, which concluded that a pro-Ukrainian group carried out the attack.
“I think one has to look at [Hirsch’s] previous track record and check the facts. If you look at his reasoning, there are many questions one should raise. There are official investigations going on that I cannot speak about.” She cautioned the public to be careful, as there is clearly a contest over “whose narrative is winning”.
She also refused to entertain an argument that the US is a benefactor of the war, or that there is a fundamental misalignment between America’s and Europe’s interests. “I know that this argument has been raised by many that are close to the Russian narrative” Brantner remarked, but people should not forget that “we obviously would not be in the same position [of advantage] if we did not have the support of the US”, which has invested more than Europe in terms of providing economic, military, and humanitarian support to Ukraine.
“I don’t even want to think about [what] these days would have been [like] with Trump in government” she added, visibly relieved, and clearly not willing to pass on the opportunity to take a jab at the former US President.
Yet, with the US bankrolling the West’s response in Ukraine, is Europe inching further from the ‘strategic autonomy’ that President Macron envisions? To that, Brantner admitted “we are still very dependent on NATO, and it’s our challenge to increase our own resilience, but that doesn’t happen from today to tomorrow”. This is a clear rebuke of critics of the transatlantic partnership.
Saving democracy
In many regards, Germany is being touted as a model for liberal democracies worldwide, owing to its consensus-based political system, its embrace of technocracy and its relatively muted and policy-focused public discourse. When asked whether other democracies should learn from Germany, Brantner was reluctant to give advice, but noted that it is important for a lively democracy to have healthy public debates. This means preventing an onslaught of misinformation and the fragmentation of truth and consensus in society. “We should not allow our public sphere to be disintegrated into different spheres of facts”, the State Secretary cautioned, pointing to the situation in the UK where she claimed, “there was outside interference in its public debates”. However, she did not elaborate further on this allegation.
Equally important to maintaining healthy public debates is the need to prevent misinformation from spreading, which she accused tech companies of encouraging through their business models. “I think we should implement tougher rules on social media and the monopolies of Facebook, Google [and] Amazon… if we want to save our democracy.”
Particularly striking were her comments on the UK. As this country faces a sluggish economic recovery from the pandemic, with a forecasted 0.6% contraction in its economy that is said to be worse than Russia’s which is under severe sanctions, a rotation of Prime Ministers and massive strikes across all sectors, I was curious to get Brantner’s perspective on all these developments as someone who has lived and studied in Oxford. Brantner was diplomatic in her response, saying “I hope we can find better ways to cooperate again between the UK and the EU as it is of mutual benefit to find practical solutions and strive together towards our common goals instead of making this an even more painful history.”