by Paolo Valentino
Berlin says yes to the 100 billion special fund for the Bundeswehr, the constitution is also changing. Here’s What You’ll Buy (And Why Maybe Not Enough)
From our correspondent
BERLIN – When Caspar Weinberger, Secretary of Defense in the first Reagan administration, asked what criteria he would use to spend the large funds approved by the President for rearmament, the Pentagon chief replied: More of everything. Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht could say the same thing, especially after the Bundesrat finally gave the green light for the 100 billion euro special fund to strengthen and modernize the Bundeswehr, the army of Germany. a gigantic sum, the approval of which required a constitutional amendment with a majority of national unity, the largest rearmament campaign in the last 70 years of German history. And it is accompanied by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s commitment to spending at least 2% of GDP on defense in the future, thereby respecting the goal agreed by the allies in NATO.
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For years after the end of the Cold War, Germany was in the crosshairs of criticism for its austerity in military spending. Long before Donald Trump and his catchphrase Angela, you have to pay, the United States had unsuccessfully urged Berlin to do its fair share of collective defense. Barack Obama even spoke of parasites exploiting American security guarantees.
A backward army
The 2 percent target set at the NATO summit in Wales in 2014 has always remained a dead letter, even though German military spending has increased since 2015, after the Russian annexation of Crimea, without ever exceeding 1.5 percent of gross domestic product. Especially in the years of the grand coalition between Angela Merkel’s CDU-CSU and the strongly pacifist-oriented SPD, defense was always the Cinderella of the federal budget. As a result, the Bundeswehr is in a desolate state. In April, Minister Lambrecht stated in a speech to the Bundestag that only 150 of the 350 Puma tanks delivered to the Bundeswehr were operational, while only 9 of the 50 Tiger attack helicopters were airworthy. During NATO maneuvers, German soldiers are mocked by colleagues from other nations because they still use antiquated analog radios, while their combat helmets are 30 years old and the new ones ordered years ago never arrived.
The turning point
According to a recent parliamentary report, ammunition is also scarce and the available would be enough for a campaign of just eight days. The Russian invasion of Ukraine turned everything upside down, both because it revealed the disastrous state of the defense apparatus that is impeding German arms deliveries to Kyiv, but above all because it fundamentally changed public perception: Happy Germans surrounded by friends , dedicated to earning money and not at all concerned about security, Americans think so much they belong in the past, says Ekkehard Brose, President of the Federal Academy for Security Policy. A fact that, according to a Spiegel survey, 78 percent of the population supports the decision by Scholz and his government to set up the 100 billion special fund.
future expenses
The shopping list that we illustrate in the graphic demonstrates Germany’s new will to improve its contribution to NATO’s strategic plans, at least to those already decided by the Atlantic Alliance and for which funding has so far been lacking. But in reality, according to many experts, even the 100 billion will not be enough to give Berlin full responsibility for the European security architecture. Also because the idea pursued by Finance Minister Christian Lindner to reintroduce the debt brake into the budget in 2023 will make it difficult to respect the target of spending at least 2% of GDP on defense every year in the future. .
June 13, 2022 (change June 13, 2022 | 09:12)
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