German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier has urged those unhappy with the interim government in Kiev not to disrupt Ukraine’s presidential election or dispute the result.
Ahead of the weekend poll Mr Steinmeier, a key player in the Ukraine crisis, appealed to all sides to "recognise their responsibility".
“Everyone who calls into question the legitimacy of current [interim] administration . . . has to have an interest in these elections taking place as fairly as possible,” he said yesterday.
The Ukraine crisis has forced Germany’s chief diplomat into negotiating a minefield of increasingly strident pro- and anti-Russian public opinion at home and abroad.
Mr Steinmeier said yesterday that at Nato foreign minister meetings he endures criticism that Berlin is showing too much understanding for Russia. At a European election rally on Monday evening in Berlin, meanwhile, he was heckled as a "warmonger". The foreign minister's energetic response to the hecklers is now a YouTube hit, though he says he cannot bear to watch it.
“I am a relaxed person and I have good nerves but there are certain accusations you have to knock back,” he said.
Stable The 58-year-old politician drew a line between the Ukrainian poll and European elections that continue until Sunday evening. The political bloc was more stable than ever for remaining intact in the crisis, having ignored calls to cut loose euro crisis countries such as Greece, Cyprus or Portugal, he said. "With that we wouldn't have lost just the common currency but . . . I'm sure we would not have been in the position to survive a foreign policy crisis like the one at present."
In office six months, the senior Social Democrat (SPD) man has launched a German foreign policy review aimed at regaining prestige the foreign ministry lost under his predecessor. He hopes this will contribute to foreign policy debates in Germany becoming less heated.
With a 74 per cent satisfaction rating, Mr Steinmeier is now Germany's most popular politician, having overtaken Angela Merkel, the woman he failed to unseat as chancellor in 2009.
His party's second grand coalition with Dr Merkel's centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has been largely harmonious so far.
Mr Steinmeier says he is aware of expectations on his party to put a new spin on euro area policy. “It remains a balancing act to maintain budgetary discipline and increase [public] investment,” he said. “Both have to exist: if one is missing, things get difficult.”
Friction The European election result could yet generate friction in Berlin, given Dr Merkel's doubts about following voters' choice of the SPD's Martin Schulz or the conservative Jean-Claude Juncker as next commission president.
Mr Steinmeier warned Dr Merkel it would be unwise to tinker with this arrangement after the fact in Brussels next week and choose compromise candidates for the top EU jobs.
"We have agreed to choose one of the Spitzenkandidaten, otherwise we are twisting the will of the European Parliament and its representatives."
