Kubicki apologizes to Habeck after Putin comparison

The deputy FDP chairman Wolfgang Kubicki apologized "in all forms" to the Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck (Greens) after a comparison with Kremlin boss Vladimir Putin. "To put him in line with a wanted war criminal is utter nonsense and a blunder. That doesn't work at all," said Kubicki of the German Press Agency on Wednesday. "Robert Habeck is an upstanding Democrat and I'd rather argue with him on the matter than over the path of defamation."

In an interview with Wieland Schinnenburg, a former FDP member of the Bundestag, Kubicki compared Habeck with Russia's President Vladimir Putin and found similarities.

Criticism of his statements also came from his counterpart Katrin Göring-Eckardt (Greens). "That's not how you deal with each other among democratic parties and certainly not among coalition partners," she told the "Tagesspiegel". She accused him of damaging the office of Bundestag Vice President and also damaging his party: “The FDP as a whole must be careful that it does not continue to be sidelined. Wolfgang Kubicki once again violated the dignity of the office and in terms of content the FDP mutated into a naysayer party. I find that very regrettable and worrying," said Göring-Eckardt.

Referring to Habeck, Kubicki had said: "He thinks freedom is the understanding of necessity. That means: whoever submits himself voluntarily is really free. And whoever opposes the fact that he has to submit, whoever has to make his own decisions, is in truth not free. Because he is forced to oppose,” said Kubicki.

"That's a concept of freedom that Vladimir Putin could easily translate to his own ruling milieu." is good.” The only difference is that Putin wants to achieve his goals through violence, while Habeck wants to use prohibitions. The interview was conducted on the Internet subscription channel "Massentaste-TV", which is produced by the Hamburg company Alsterfilm, in the talk show "Veto".

A few months ago, Kubicki called Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a "little sewer rat" in the Lower Saxony state election campaign. When asked, the FDP politician explained that he made the statement as part of a statement on the refugee policy of the Turkish President, who had concluded a deal with the European Union that was advantageous for Turkey to reduce the number of refugees. Kubicki shared: "A sewer rat is a small, cute, yet clever and devious creature, which is why she also appears as a protagonist in children's stories ("Kalle Kanalratte", "Ratatouille")". The statement did not lead to investigations by the public prosecutor's office in Hildesheim. According to the authority, there is no initial suspicion of a crime.

"Kick-off Politics" is WELT's daily news podcast. The most important topic analyzed by WELT editors and the dates of the day. Subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Amazon Music, among others, or directly via RSS feed.