The economics ministers and the finance minister are calling for more investment in the Bundeswehr.
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner and Federal Minister of Economics Robert Habeck are calling for more investment in the German armed forces. “We have to familiarize ourselves with the fact that our armed forces have been managed for many, many years to wear out,” said Lindner on Thursday evening on the ARD program “Maischberger”. German politics must learn “that the defense of alliances is also a political priority”.
Habeck made a similar statement in the evening on Markus Lanz’s ZDF talk show: Germany is now more or less the neighbor of an aggressively warring country. This will certainly have the consequence that the Bundeswehr’s operational capability will have to be checked again – “and – I don’t think I’m going to reveal any secrets – have to be increased”.
In the ARD “Tagesthemen”, the Federal Minister of Economics emphasized that in Germany, too, one must ensure “that we have a fully capable army that is operational and robust”. One could also have doubts about that, said the Green politician with a view to the current state of the German armed forces.
According to the financial planning of the old federal government, the funds for the Bundeswehr would have decreased in the coming years, said Lindner. “Declining defense spending is no longer up to date.” It was clear to him even before today that “the funds for the Bundeswehr must be increased”.
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Lindner did not rule out that Russia will stop gas exports to Germany and other countries in response to Western sanctions. “However, we have been prepared for this for some time.” In the medium term, Germany must make its energy supply more independent of Russia. “The energy dependency on Russia is a flank. We need to become more diverse.”
Habeck added: The attack on Ukraine “cannot be rationally explained”. With this war, Putin is harming Russia and his own regime. “Europe, the West, the free world – they will turn away now because you can’t do business with warmongers and dictators.” This is not for the good of Russia. “The irrationality that speaks from this makes it just as dangerous.” The attack had been planned well in advance and in cold blood. “We must now admit that we have been naïve the last few weeks and months.”
More: You can read all current developments in the live blog.