Budget debate in the Bundestag
Merz: “Unloved child” Bundeswehr is a budget loser
09/06/2023 10:29 am
In February 2022, Chancellor Scholz promised a “turning point” – more money for defense. In the 2024 budget, opposition leader Merz is now missing an increase in the post. The government is using the special fund to formally achieve the two percent target.
Union faction leader Friedrich Merz has accused Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his traffic light government of not doing justice to the claim of a “turning point” with the budget draft for the coming year. In the general debate on the 2024 budget in the Bundestag in Berlin, Merz said he had serious doubts as to whether the dimension of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and its far-reaching effects were correctly assessed.
Above all, the CDU chairman criticized the lack of long-term financing for the Bundeswehr. The big losers are Defense Minister Boris Pistorius from the SPD, the soldiers of the Bundeswehr – and the alliance partners have also lost trust, said Merz.
The Bundeswehr, which is “unloved” by the SPD and the Greens, is already facing far more far-reaching structural underfunding than when the traffic light took over the Bundeswehr two years ago, criticized Merz. By 2027 at the latest, there will be a gap of at least 30 billion euros in the defense budget, which the government currently has no idea how to fill, said Merz.
In his government statement on February 27, 2022, Scholz promised to invest two percent of the gross domestic product in the Bundeswehr with immediate effect and to also set up a debt-financed special fund of 100 billion euros for the procurement of large weapon systems that have to be financed over the long term. The Union agreed on the business basis of the two percent promise out of conviction. Instead, one now sees a largely unchanged defense budget. In order to formally meet the two percent target, the traffic light is increasingly using the special fund for ongoing operations.
In 2014, the NATO countries agreed that all alliance states should approach the target value of two percent by 2024. In July they decided to make the two percent a minimum target. In the future, all member states should therefore spend at least two percent on defense. In addition to Germany, almost 20 other NATO countries are currently missing the two percent.
Merz went on to say that Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner spoke on Tuesday of a “big iceberg” that Germany was heading towards. This iceberg will not change course, so the federal government must change course, Merz continued to quote the finance minister. However, this attitude does not have the approval of the SPD and the Greens. In this respect, Lindner made it clear with his “iceberg speech” that there are now two opposition leaders in Germany, one in the government and one in parliament. “Good cooperation, Chrisian Lindner,” Merz called out to the FDP leader.
Merz also affirmed that the Union rejects the law on basic child security and the building energy law. The coalition is constantly expanding what is “an almost paternalistic state”.
Scholz, who presented a “Germany Pact” to modernize the country, rejected Merz’s allegations. “It doesn’t work with the buggers in this republic.” The most important bugbear that Merz built has something to do with the cancellation of a consensus that the Bundestag reached with a two-thirds majority when the special fund for the Bundeswehr was decided. Merz is currently canceling this. “This is bad.” Scholz guaranteed the Bundeswehr that the NATO quota will also be reached in the years 2028, 2029 and in the 1930s – when the 100 billion euro special fund has been exhausted.