“Chancellor’s office is slowing down reform”
Kiesewetter fears Pistorius’ failure
November 10, 2023, 3:02 a.m
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There is praise from the Union for the Defense Minister’s new Bundeswehr guidelines. But for the CDU politician Kiesewetter, Pistorius’ biggest problem for a revolution lies with the troops in the Chancellery.
The CDU foreign politician Roderich Kiesewetter has accused the federal government of delaying an urgently needed modernization of the Bundeswehr. “What the Bundeswehr needs is a revolution in structures, mindset, financing, procurement,” Kiesewetter told the Funke newspapers. The Bundeswehr is in a worse position today than it was in February 2022 at the time of the Russian attack on Ukraine.
Individual correct approaches to restructuring in the Defense Ministry by the Social Democratic Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius have been “drops in the ocean so far,” said the CDU politician.
Kiesewetter welcomed the fact that Pistorius emphasized the need for defensiveness and fitness for war in the defense policy guidelines that had just been published. However, every good approach fails because of the federal government and the Chancellery, “which neither ensures a socio-political re-prioritization of spending nor ensures that deterrence in Europe will be sufficient in the future,” said the CDU member of the Bundestag.
“The time factor then ran out”
“If Ukraine falls and Russia is successful, Russia will be at NATO’s borders and a combat mission will be more likely for the Bundeswehr,” added Kiesewetter. “The time factor will then have expired and a Bundeswehr that is neither equipped nor combat capable will then have to fight without an established arms industry, without financing and without defensive capability. However, nothing is being done in the Chancellery to prevent this scenario.”
Against the backdrop of the war in Ukraine, Pistorius issued defense policy guidelines for a “war-ready” Bundeswehr. Germany must be “the backbone of deterrence and collective defense in Europe,” said Pistorius in Berlin. Together with Inspector General Carsten Breuer, he emphasized that Germany’s “partners in Europe, North America and the world” expect “that we face this responsibility.”