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Habeck demands a record defense budget: danger from Russia in view!
Robert Habeck demands an increase in defense spending to 3.5% of GDP to fulfill NATO goals and counteract Russia.
Habeck demands a record defense budget: danger from Russia in view!
Robert Habeck, the Greens' candidate for Chancellor, has clearly spoken out for massive upgrading the Bundeswehr. Loud Berlin live is the likelihood that Habeck will become minister or chancellor, but low. In 2024, the former traffic light coalition only reached the NATO target of 2 percent of gross domestic product. In order to achieve this goal, 100 billion euros from a special fund were used.
Habeck demands that Germany invest at least 3.5 percent of gross domestic product in defense. This would mean an increase in the defense budget to 150 billion euros per year. The current defense budget is 72 billion euros, of which 20 billion comes from the special fund. In order to achieve the 2 percent goal, other expenses were also counted. The SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich criticizes this claim as arbitrary, while the left-wing party leader Jan van Aken points out that European countries already have higher military expenditure than Russia.
Increasing defense spending
In addition shows ZDF that Habeck refers to expert calculations that state that around 3.5 percent of the economic output for defense is necessary for the coming years. This is done to counter a possible threat from Russia. The federal government has planned for 2025 defense spending of around 90.6 billion euros, which corresponds to around 2.1 percent of gross domestic product.
In 2024, only four of the 32 NATO countries fulfilled the 3 percent mark next to the United States. Germany is currently using a special pot of 100 billion euros to reach the NATO goal, which is to be issued by the end of 2027. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius from the SPD also supports the increase in defense spending beyond the 2 percent goal.
Habeck emphasizes that the additional expenses cannot be financed from the current budget or by cuts in the citizens' allowance and suggests financing them through loans or a new special fund without abolishing the debt brake. Notably, Habeck said that he would go to the Bundeswehr these days, which was a clear contradiction to his earlier attitude during the Cold War when he refused to work.
- transmitted by West-East media