German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier denounced the “historical lies” of the Kremlin on Thursday, which seeks to justify its invasion of Ukraine in the name of the fight against Nazism, on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second world War.
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The war of invasion led by Russia by Vladimir Putin “has nothing to do with the fight against Nazism”, but “is nothing other than a cover” for “imperial madness” and “atrocious crimes”, said the head of state in a commemorative discourse pronounced in the Bundestag, the lower room of Parliament.
The German head of state has also had very harsh words for the United States of Donald Trump to which he criticized the order and the values established after the horrors of the war.
“The fact that the United States, which has largely contributed to shaping this order, turn away Today is an unprecedented shock,” said Steinmeier.
“It is no more and no less than a double historical break – the war of aggression led by Russia, the rupture of American values - which marks the end of the long 20th century,” said the head of state.
He expressed his “deep gratitude” to “allied – American, English, English – and the” European resistance “soldiers who released Germany from Nazi terror, and underlined” the crucial role of the Red Army “which lost” at least 13 million soldiers and as many civilians “and” released “the extermination camp of Auschwitz.
-“It is precisely for this reason that we firmly oppose the current historical falsifications of the Kremlin,” he said.
“Even if it will be said again tomorrow during the victory celebrations in Moscow, the war against Ukraine is not the continuation of the fight against fascism,” insisted the head of state.
The Kremlin organizes large celebrations in Moscow on Friday, in the presence of foreign leaders, while Vladimir Putin maintains the patriotic cult of the victory of 1945 and maintains that the large -scale invasion of Ukraine is an extension of the war against Hitler.
“How to stay free?”
The Russian ambassador to Berlin was not invited to the Bundestag ceremony held in an exceptionally public holiday in the German capital.
In his speech, the German president also stressed the importance of defending the memory of May 8, 1945 against extremisms which “want to turn the page” of collective memory and trivialize the Holocaust. “It would be betraying the lessons of the past,” he warned.
His intervention left the far -right deputies of the alternative party for Germany (AFD), now the first opposition to the Bundestag and most of the elected officials have not applauded the head of state.
In Germany and Europe, “the fascination for authoritarianism and populist sirens are once again gaining ground,” worried Mr. Steinmeier.
In the United States, he added, “we see with dread that even the oldest democracy in the world can quickly be endangered when justice is flouted, the separation of suppressed powers and the attacked scientific freedom”.
“Today, we should therefore no longer ask ourselves:” did he release us? ” But we wonder: how can we remain free? ”, The German president noted.
