Overview
- After visiting devastated areas near Damascus, Johann Wadephul said many Syrians could not return in the short term and that people there can hardly live with dignity.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz reaffirmed support through spokesman Stefan Kornelius, who also said he saw no coordinated push for Wadephul to step down, and SPD figures publicly defended the minister.
- Hesse’s Junge Union leader Lukas Brandscheid urged Wadephul to consider whether he is the right person for the job, and NRW JU chief Kevin Gniosdorz called for tighter coordination from the chancellery.
- Union lawmakers voiced irritation over slow clarification from the Foreign Office, and Merz declined to endorse Wadephul’s internal comparison of Syria’s destruction to Germany in 1945.
- German media reported speculation about possible successors such as Jens Spahn, though the chancellery dismissed the need for a personnel change as unsubstantiated talk.