At the start of the general debate in the Bundestag, opposition leader Merz accused the government of setting the wrong priorities. The effects of the Ukraine war would be underestimated by the traffic light, the Bundeswehr would remain underfinanced.
In the general debate in the Bundestag, the leader of the opposition, Friedrich Merz, accused the federal government of not doing justice to the “fundamental challenge of the turning point”.
The CDU chairman said he had serious doubts as to whether the dimension of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine and its far-reaching effects were correctly assessed. Above all, Merz criticized the lack of long-term financing for the Bundeswehr. The big losers are Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD), the soldiers of the Bundeswehr – and the alliance partners have also lost confidence, said Merz.
Merz: Two percent target not met
“The Bundeswehr remains the unloved child of the SPD and the Greens,” said the CDU politician. In a short space of time, the Bundeswehr is facing far more far-reaching structural underfunding than when the traffic light took over the Bundeswehr two years ago, he criticized. By 2027 at the latest, there will be a gap of at least 30 billion euros in the defense budget, which the government currently has no idea how to fill.
In his government statement on February 27, 2022, Scholz promised to invest two percent of gross domestic product in the Bundeswehr with immediate effect and also to set up a debt-financed special fund of 100 billion euros for the procurement of large weapon systems that have to be financed over the long term, Merz said in his speech.
The Union agreed on the business basis of the two percent promise out of conviction. Instead, one now sees a largely unchanged defense budget. In order to formally meet the two percent target, the traffic light is increasingly using the special fund for ongoing operations.