New German defence budget slammed as ‘too low’ by critics

4 months ago 21

Experts and politicians from across the spectrum have criticised the budget agreement reached by Germany’s coalition parties, bemoaning the small increase in defence spending as insufficient to counter the threat from Russia.

After decades of defence budget cuts, Germany has been rebuilding its defensive capabilities, facing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and fears of an attack on NATO territory.

While the budget deal for 2024, struck on Friday, was squeezed by Germany’s constitutional borrowing limit (‘debt brake’), the defence budget is to rise by €1.2 billion this year.

Yet observers were unimpressed with the figures agreed by the coalition partners, the centre-left SPD, the Greens, and the liberal FDP.

“This would in no way do justice to the current threat level and certainly not to Germany’s responsibility in the world,” said André Wüstner, chairman of the Bundeswehrverband, an association of more than 200,000 armed forces members, including active soldiers.

The sum does “not even match the adjustment for inflation,” said Florian Hahn, an MP from the centre-right CDU/CSU, the largest opposition group in parliament.

“In view of what is important now, namely deterrence against Putin and the Russian Federation, this is, of course, very bad news,” he told BR24 on Saturday.

Members of the coalition government also commented: The SPD’s Andreas Schwarz called the figures “sobering,” while the Greens’ Anton Hofreiter said Germany “won’t manage” with similar amounts in the long run.

Defence Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD/S&D) had initially asked for an additional €6.7 billion for 2025.

“The defence minister is getting more money than in the previous budget, but he is getting less money than he publicly demanded. That’s the normal budget procedure,” Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP/Renew), an advocate of the debt brake, said in response on Saturday.

€28 billion needed

Germany will still, however, face a shortfall in defence funding from 2028, when the €100 billion extra-budgetary fund the government set up in 2022 to supplement its regular budget and strengthen the armed forces is due to be spent.

Estimates suggest that the government would need to increase its annual defence budget from €52 billion in 2024 to €80 billion to continue meeting NATO’s 2% of GDP defence spending target.

Although Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD/S&D) pledged on Friday to meet this demand, it is uncertain whether he will still be in office by then. His party is trailing the CDU/CSU in opinion polls ahead of next year’s national elections.

(Nick Alipour | Euractiv.de)