As of: February 14, 2024, 2:15 p.m
By: Jens Kiffmeier
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Regular budget instead of extra money: Boris Pistorius (SPD) is calling for more money for the Bundeswehr - but not through a special fund.
The Trump threat leaves him cold.
Berlin - Former US President Donald Trump has alarmed Europe: After his controversial statement about NATO's duty to provide assistance, a debate about military independence has broken out within the European Union (EU).
There is panic, especially in Germany, because the Bundeswehr has been considered anything but war-fighting for years of austerity measures.
But loud calls for a rapid increase in the special fund are met with skepticism by Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD).
“I am happy about any suggestion that helps ensure that defense spending is budgeted sensibly and appropriately,” said the SPD politician to the
Editorial Network Germany
(RND).
“Another special fund is one option for this – but not my favorite,” he added.
Despite Trump's NATO statement: Pistorius doubts the sense of new Bundeswehr special assets
After the start of the war in Ukraine, the traffic light coalition had already set up a special fund for the ailing Bundeswehr.
It has a volume of 100 billion euros.
However, there is now a debate about whether an increase is necessary, especially in light of Donald Trump's statements.
The former US President had indicated during the US presidential election campaign that the USA, under his renewed leadership, was not prepared to help the European NATO partners against Russia's aggression at any price if the countries did not massively increase their defense budgets themselves.
Boris Pistorius (SPD) would rather see the defense budget increase in the regular federal budget instead of another special fund.
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
Against this background, CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter immediately brought a new special fund into play for the Bundeswehr.
The value: 300 billion euros.
But Pistorius doesn't want any new special funds, but rather an increase in the regular defense budget in the budget.
This is the only way, the minister argues, that the Bundeswehr can be on solid financial footing in the long term.
More money for the Bundeswehr: These are the disadvantages of the special fund
Pistorius cited several disadvantages of a special fund.
On the one hand, he points out that inflation is eating up part of the special fund.
In addition, the special fund cannot be used for maintenance, upkeep, repairs and training.
The minister emphasizes that in addition to the procurement of weapons, operating costs and repair costs must also be taken into account.
However, the debate is unlikely to be over yet.
An increase in the defense budget could fail due to Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), who would have to loosen the debt brake to get more money in times of tight budgets - but that is an absolute no-go for the Liberals.
In any case, the defense budget has recently increased.
Clear message to Trump: Germany will achieve the two percent goal in NATO
For the first time in three decades, Germany has reported to NATO planned defense spending amounting to two percent of gross domestic product, as the
dpa
news agency reports.
Accordingly, the federal government submitted an amount for the current year that, when converted into comparative figures from the defense alliance, corresponds to a sum of 73.41 billion dollars.
In absolute terms, this is a record for Germany and, according to the current NATO forecast, would mean a GDP ratio of 2.01 percent.
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After all, this means that the traffic light coalition is taking a little wind out of Donald Trump's sails.
The reason for his NATO statements was repeatedly the fact that countries like Germany had fallen below the promised two percent limit.
(
jkf
)
Editor Jens Kiffmeier wrote this article and then used an AI language model for optimization at his own discretion. All information has been carefully checked. Find out more about our AI principles here.