Berlin The job of secretary of defense is thankless. Christine Lambrecht’s CDU predecessors, Ursula von der Leyen and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, were above all shortage administrators who had to watch more or less helplessly as the Bundeswehr was being saved to death.
SPD Mrs. Lambrecht can now draw on unlimited financial resources – but only because the conditional operational readiness of the Bundeswehr is suddenly perceived as an existential question due to the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine.
Lambrecht now has money for new weapons and better equipment for the soldiers. But at the same time it has to take away the fears of the war spreading to the citizens and put off the Ukraine, which is clamoring for more German support, because the Bundeswehr is blank and would like to go on a shopping spree to buy additional arms supplies.
That’s why there are probably few in political Berlin who would like to swap places with the 56-year-old lawyer. Lambrecht herself, who was Minister of Justice under Chancellor Angela Merkel, probably imagined her political career differently – after the surprising SPD election victory, she was the clear favorite for the interior department. But Chancellor Olaf Scholz made her head of the armed forces.
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If you believe SPD circles, Lambrecht was only “parked” in the Ministry of Defense on Stauffenbergstraße in Berlin. Because in autumn 2023 there are state elections in Hesse. By then, Nancy Faeser should have become known nationwide as Federal Minister of the Interior, in order to then apply to succeed the Hessian Prime Minister Volker Bouffier. Should Faeser move to Wiesbaden as prime minister or opposition leader, Lambrecht could still take on her dream job, according to the simulation games.
The commander-in-chief first had to find her way into the role intended for her over the almost 184,000 soldiers in the Bundeswehr. After she took office, there were complaints in the SPD parliamentary group that there had been no exchange with the ministry leadership for weeks. Their personnel policy is also not without controversy.
Read more about Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht here
Lambrecht is not solely responsible for the fact that Germany initially did not want to and could not supply more than 5,000 helmets to Ukraine, which was threatened by Vladimir Putin’s army. However, selling the delivery as a “very clear signal” to the country, which was only threatened by war at the time, was a communication disaster.
However, it still fell within the 100-day grace period of the new federal government, which is now over. Lambrecht, like the other cabinet members, is now expected to deliver. According to the liberal coalition partner, the defense minister is doing very well. “After initial skepticism, I am positively surprised by the minister and her determination to work through the coalition agreement in an ambitious manner,” says Marcus Faber, spokesman for defense policy for the FDP parliamentary group.
The work program of the SPD, Greens and FDP certainly contains points that were long taboo for the SPD, such as the purchase of armed drones. Faber also doesn’t find it dramatic that Lambrecht has not yet attracted attention as a defense politician: “In Siemtje Möller and Thomas Hitschler, the minister has two state secretaries who have been on the subject for a long time,” he says.
In her inaugural speech in the Bundestag in mid-January, when she still had hopes of a diplomatic solution to the Ukraine crisis, Lambrecht promised better equipment for soldiers and a reform of the procurement system. In addition, spending on defense must continue to rise – even if money is not everything.
It was all the more surprising in the Chancellery and the Federal Ministry of Finance that the minister asked for additional funds when preparing the budget – beyond the 100 billion euro special fund announced by Chancellor Scholz. The head of government has always made it clear that the recently renewed commitment to the NATO partners to put two percent of economic output into defense should also be achieved with the help of the special fund, the chancellor’s office said.
Lambrecht, on the other hand, demanded a further 100 billion euros for the regular defense budget throughout the legislature, which the officials at the Ministry of Finance initially did not want to believe. There was also a dispute about the use of the special fund: the Ministry of Finance and the Federal Chancellery wanted to set this down in an economic plan, while the Ministry of Defense wanted more freedom.
Scholz and Lambrecht now want to talk to Inspector General Eberhard Zorn on Wednesday about what is to be paid for with the billions. The priorities have long been clear, the purchase of F-35 combat aircraft has already been announced, and the Bundeswehr urgently needs new radio equipment, heavy transport helicopters and ammunition.
The Minister of Defense has her say with the soldiers. In an interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” she just said that it was “only a matter of weeks before the first improvements reached the troops”. At the meeting with her EU counterparts on Monday in Brussels, she also offered that Germany could provide the EU’s new rapid reaction force for a year in 2025.
Speculations about a cabinet reshuffle, which made the rounds in Lambrecht’s early days, should now be silenced for the time being. To fill the defense department in the middle of the war looks unfortunate for the SPD, Chancellor Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD) is said to have made clear internally.
More on this: 346 million despite embargo: Europe’s dubious arms deliveries to Putin