Germany's opposition parties have accused Berlin's ruling grand coalition of bouncing the country into a war in Syria without proper debate and without even admitting it is a war.
After cabinet approval on Tuesday and a first parliamentary reading on Wednesday, the Bundestag gave approval yesterday with a large majority to deploy 1,200 German soldiers, reconnaissance aircraft and a warship to assist the fight against Islamic State, also known as Isis.
The mandate, limited initially to one year, was passed by 445 MPs – almost entirely from the government benches – and 145 against, with seven abstentions.
The vote came after an emotional debate over what is just the third foreign military deployment in Germany’s post-war history.
Left Party floor leader Sahra Wagenknecht called it “madness” to respond to the Paris attacks with bombings that would cause further civilian casualties.
Tornado tempo
“As opposition we don’t want to be pulled into this war at a Tornado tempo,” said
Petra Sitte
, also of the opposition Left (Linke), a nod to the reconnaissance Tornado aircraft
Germany
will fly over Isis camps in Syria from January.
In addition to the 1,200 soldiers and Tornado intelligence, German satellites will provide Berlin and its allies with other information about Isis activity. A German A310 will offer air-to-air refuelling while a German warship will patrol Syrian coastal waters and defend a French aircraft carrier.
While Berlin has insisted its troops would not be involved in direct combat, the Syrian mission has triggered debates that echoed earlier, emotional arguments over previous German deployments in Kosovo and Afghanistan.
The difference this time, however, was the relatively muted reaction of Germany’s usually vocal pacifist movement – and a refusal of a younger generation of conservative politicians to engage in semantics.
Andreas Scheuer (41), the general secretary of Bavaria's ruling CSU, said he had "no problem saying we are in a war with the alliance against terror".
Older politicians in the grand coalition, however, chose their words carefully. Senior Social Democrat (SPD) Thomas Oppermann refused to describe the mission as war, instead an “armed conflict of 64 states against IS”.
During two Bundestag debates the Green Party attacked as "planless" both the Bundeswehr deployment and its expedited passage through the Bundestag, predicting it would have the opposite effect to that desired.
"Saying 'I want to do something' is not a strategy," said Anton Hofreiter, Green Party floor leader.
However, leading ministers defended the mission as a show of solidarity with France, and criticised the opposition for offering no alternative to combat Isis.
