By Enver Robelli
Members of parliament and other prominent figures from Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) have sparked fierce controversy with a “manifesto” calling for dialogue with Russia. The document even references NATO’s 1999 intervention to liberate Kosovo — in a blatantly manipulative interpretation of history.
It’s been a month since Friedrich Merz, a conservative politician from the CDU, was elected Chancellor of Germany. He governs in coalition with the SPD. The new government has pledged deep reforms and a continued commitment to support Ukraine. Just ten days ago, Merz visited U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House and, unlike many other Western leaders, managed to navigate the encounter without major fallout — despite Trump’s notoriously unorthodox diplomatic style. After the visit, Germany’s political engine seemed to be running smoothly. But these are far from normal times in Europe (with the war in Ukraine) and in the Middle East (with the brutal conflict in Gaza) — not to mention the many other crises shaking the world.
Amid this geopolitical chaos, a “manifesto” by several SPD politicians has stirred up a storm. They position themselves against the German government’s stance and call for a revision of policy toward Russia. In their text, they advocate for dialogue with Vladimir Putin’s dictatorship, criticize what they call “alarming military rhetoric,” and demand an end to the deployment of American medium-range missiles in Germany. Among the signatories are prominent SPD MPs Rolf Mützenich and Ralf Stegner. Mützenich was the leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Bundestag, while Stegner secretly met with Russian representatives in Baku, Azerbaijan, this April. Both belong to the so-called pacifist wing of the SPD and are members of the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Their “manifesto” directly attacks the government led by Chancellor Merz and indirectly the SPD itself — particularly its leader Lars Klingbeil, who has clearly stated that “security cannot be achieved WITH Russia, but AGAINST Russia.” SPD leaders have distanced themselves from the manifesto, while leading German media outlets have fiercely criticized it. The conservative daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung dubbed the signatories “doves at the gates of hell,” writing that their refusal to face reality is breathtaking. This harsh — and partly absurd — critique of politicians accused of being “friends of Russia” came just days before the SPD Congress and the NATO Summit in The Hague.
The manifesto also mentions Kosovo in a disturbingly revisionist tone: the authors accuse Western powers of having undermined Europe’s peace order by launching NATO airstrikes against Serbia in 1999. Yet, just three days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, then-Chancellor Olaf Scholz declared that this act of aggression had fundamentally broken the European peace order. The so-called “pacifists” of the SPD seem to think otherwise, aligning themselves — whether consciously or not — with the legacy of Slobodan Milošević. In the year 2025.
With their document, Mützenich, Stegner, and company are not only challenging SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil — who also serves as Deputy Chancellor — but also the Defense Minister, Boris Pistorius, a fellow Social Democrat with a strong transatlantic orientation and staunch support for Ukraine. On the very day the manifesto was published (last Wednesday), Pistorius was preparing for a trip to Kyiv. En route, he responded forcefully to internal party critics. In a lengthy statement to the German Press Agency (DPA), he flatly rejected his SPD colleagues’ call for a radical shift in Russia policy. “This document is a denial of reality. It exploits the German public’s desire for an end to the terrible war in Ukraine — for peace,” said Pistorius.
Unlike his colleagues, who conveniently turn a blind eye (or both eyes) and adopt a dangerously naive stance toward Russian imperialism, Pistorius has no illusions. He stressed that it is Putin who consistently rejects Ukraine’s offers for a ceasefire without preconditions. “He breaks off negotiations. And when he resumes them, he escalates with even more brutal bombings of Ukrainian cities,” said Pistorius. According to him, this clearly shows that Russia has no genuine interest in peace — except on its own terms. To accept those terms would mean: “Such a peace would leave Ukraine defenseless against Russian arbitrariness.” At the same time, Pistorius added, Putin is expanding his arsenal, has shifted to a war economy, and openly talks about a ruthless battle to forge a new world order.
The pacifist wing of the SPD idealizes Chancellor Willy Brandt’s policy of détente from the 1970s, which aimed to thaw relations with the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc countries — paving the way, two decades later, for German reunification. But the SPD pacifists forget one crucial fact: under Brandt, Germany’s defense spending was actually higher than it is today. Pistorius highlights this as well. He says he has no objection to negotiations with Russia — provided they occur on equal footing. “But not through submission.”