defense
Pistorius: If in doubt, new debt for more security
“It won’t be possible through redeployment alone”: Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius. photo
© Marcus Brandt/dpa
Does the debt brake have to be relaxed to finance German security? Defense Minister Pistorius brings this idea into play.
Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (SPD) has spoken out in favor of considering a general exception to the debt brake for the requirements of internal and external security.
In the ZDF program “What now, Mr. Pistorius” he made it clear that he sees no possibility of covering the Bundeswehr’s financial needs through austerity measures elsewhere alone. “It won’t just be a matter of reallocating the amounts we’re talking about. If in doubt, we’ll also have to talk about additional debt in this coalition or the next one.”
Pistorius emphasized that these are amounts that “cannot be cut out of the flesh.” One should therefore think about creating an exception for security in the broadest sense – that is, in addition to national defense, also for civil defense and disaster control.
Special funds exhausted by 2027
The federal government has pledged to permanently spend at least two percent of gross domestic product on defense. This corresponds to a NATO target from 2014. It can currently still draw on the special fund of 100 billion euros that was created after the Russian attack on Ukraine but will be exhausted by 2027. It is still unclear what will happen next.
The debt brake is anchored in the Basic Law and stipulates that the budgets of the federal and state governments must generally be balanced without income from loans. Exceptions are possible in the event of natural disasters or other exceptional emergency situations such as the corona pandemic.