Ask Lindner for more money
Pistorius fears a halt to armaments in the Bundeswehr
April 10, 2024, 10:32 p.m
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The ministries are expected to submit their budget for 2025 next week. Finance Minister Lindner previously made it clear that belts had to be tightened everywhere. Defense Minister Pistorius is now calculating what that would mean for the Bundeswehr.
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius apparently wants to achieve a significant increase for the 2025 budget in the upcoming budget talks with Finance Minister Christian Lindner from the FDP. According to “Spiegel”, the SPD minister warned at a meeting of the Green parliamentary group in the afternoon that the previously planned budget of 52 billion euros was not enough to further modernize the Bundeswehr. Without a significant increase in Individual Plan 14, the Bundeswehr would be threatened with an “arms stop,” the minister said, according to several participants.
Pistorius calculated in front of MPs that he would hardly have any scope for new investments in the coming year due to the Bundeswehr’s high operating and personnel costs. Specifically, according to his company’s current calculations, of the 52 billion euros, he only has 500 million euros left for new purchases; the rest of the budget has already been tied up. Next week, the individual ministers should report their financial requirements for 2025 to Finance Minister Lindner.
Special assets have also already been planned
Pistorius’ experts had already calculated weeks ago that individual plan 14 would have to increase by at least 4 to 6.5 billion euros in order to start the necessary new investments in new weapon systems. In addition, this increase is necessary so that Germany can reach NATO’s so-called two percent defense spending quota.
The debt-financed 100 billion special fund has apparently already been planned. The Defense Ministry had already announced on Tuesday that around 80 percent of the special fund was currently tied up in contracts. “We expect to reach 100 percent by the end of this year,” a spokesman added. The special fund anchored in the Basic Law was set up after the Russian attack on Ukraine two years ago in order to equip the Bundeswehr with better and more modern equipment.