Greens and FDP announce increase for Pistorius
The Ampel coalition agreement on the budget for 2025 comes as a disappointment for Defense Minister Pistorians. Politicians from the Greens and FDP have announced that the defense budget in the Bundestag could still be increased. The Union renews its criticism of the budget for the military.
Looking at the budget negotiations in the Bundestag, Green budget politician Sebastian Schäfer, who is also the deputy chief of the Bundestag committee for the Bundeswehr Special Fund, has announced corrections in defense spending. Although the coalition leaders' compromise provides a "decent working basis for the budget negotiations in parliament," Schäfer told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland (RND), "there will be numerous and significant changes. There are great needs in security and defense policy that we will have to consider in the parliamentary procedure."
The defense policy spokesperson for the FDP, Alexander Müller, acknowledged the record defense spending of the Ampel coalition for the Bundeswehr but was open to further adjustments in favor of the defense budget. "Investments in the Bundeswehr are currently as high as they have not been for over half a century," Müller told RND. "In the context of the Zeitenwende, we will have to make ongoing decisions in the coming years about which state expenses the state should bear and which it should not - security will always be the highest priority for the FDP."
"Irresponsible and outdated"
The Union faction accused the Ampel coalition of failure. "The Zeitenwende is just empty talk from the Ampel," said the parliamentary business manager of the Union, Thorsten Frei, to RND. "Scholz only granted the defense minister an inflation adjustment. This budget plan is irresponsible and outdated in the face of the threat from Russia."
Frei criticized that the chancellor was passing on the heavy decisions to his successor: "It doesn't work cheaper," said the CDU politician. "I find it opaque how the necessary leap of 60 percent to reach the 2-percent target in 2028 is supposed to happen." The Union had changed the Constitution and created the Bundeswehr Special Fund specifically for these purposes, Frei noted: "It's sad to see how the Ampel coalition is almost tripping over this opportunity and we are now in a worse position than at the beginning of the war."
"Unsatisfactory"
Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius had previously expressed dissatisfaction with the coalition leaders' budget plans for the defense ministry. "It's unsatisfactory that I'm getting significantly less than I applied for," Pistorius said on the sidelines of a NATO maneuver in the US state of Alaska. He couldn't "start certain things as quickly as required by the Zeitgeist and threat situation," the SPD minister noted.
The compromise of the "Ampel" coalition for the state budget of the coming year sees a smaller defense budget than demanded by Pistorius. The defense minister had requested around 58 billion euros, while the compromise only provides for around 53 billion euros.
- Despite the disappointment expressed by Defense Minister Pistorians, politicians from Alliance 90/The Greens and FDP have suggested that the defense budget in the German Bundestag could still see an increase.
- The FDP's defense policy spokesperson, Alexander Müller, while acknowledging the record defense spending under the Ampel coalition, has shown openness to further adjustments in favor of the defense budget, highlighting the importance of security and defense policy for the FDP.
- In the German Bundestag's budget negotiations, the Green budget politician and deputy chief of the Bundestag committee for the Bundeswehr Special Fund, Sebastian Schäfer, has announced corrections in defense spending, recognizing significant changes necessary to address the needs in security and defense policy.
