Calling it a "war exercise," German left-wing party leaders strongly criticized NATO for large-scale military exercises. The German Federation | Federal | NATO
On June 12th local time, Dietmar Balch, the chairman of the German Left Party's Federal House caucus, posted on social media criticizing the large-scale NATO air military exercise "Air Guard 2023" that began on that day, calling it a "war exercise.".
Balch said that the federal government is cutting budgets, but it has not affected defense spending, but rather has had an impact on children's poverty, which urgently needs federal financial support. He admitted in a media interview that he was worried about the atmosphere of war, believing that instead of engaging in an arms race, warning of war fatigue, and more importantly, making efforts to ease the situation and stopping the supply of weapons. Balch criticized, "Fighters whizzed over Germany, but the federal government remained silent on peace initiatives."
On the 12th, the foreign policy spokesperson of the left-wing party, Gregor Guessy, also questioned the purpose of the federal government's annual participation in NATO military exercises, stating that "no military exercise can solve the problem of years of poor military procurement management by the German Federal Ministry of Defense.". In his view, besides declaring a willingness to confront, NATO military exercises cannot have any positive effect on improving the situation between Russia and Ukraine, and "as early as the Cold War, the implementation of deterrence policies has been proven to be delaying time.". Gu Xi also criticized the delay in launching a unified peace initiative between the European Union and Germany.
According to Zaklin Nastic, the chairman of the left-wing group of the German Federal House Defense Committee, in the past year, the federal government has increasingly made Germany a participant in the war. She also pointed out that this military exercise will emit 35000 tons of carbon dioxide, which is "an unparalleled disaster" for climate protection. Nastic called for an end to this crazy behavior as soon as possible and to focus all efforts on resolving the conflict through diplomatic means.