German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius complained on Monday that he received significantly less money than he requested for his ministry’s budget for 2025 and expressed his frustration with the situation, Reuters reports.
Pistorius had asked for an annual increase in defense spending of €6.7 billion in next year’s budget. Although neither he, the German Finance Ministry, nor Chancellor Olaf Scholz specified the amount Germany will have for military spending next year, Pistorius complained that it will be insufficient for important projects.
“This is annoying for me because I can’t initiate certain things as quickly as ‘Zeitenwende’ and the security situation require,” he said.
Chancellor Scholz Promised a “Turning Point” for German Armed Forces
Just days after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced in a speech to the Berlin parliament a historic “turning point” for Germany regarding defense spending and the creation of a special €100 billion fund for modernizing the country’s armed forces.
This paradigm shift became known in Germany as “Zeitenwende,” after the term used by Scholz in his speech.
However, shortly after taking office in January 2023, Boris Pistorius warned that the €100 billion fund would not be sufficient for modernizing the German army after years of underinvestment in the armed forces. Additionally, plans to increase military investments have faced multiple obstacles, including German press reports in August last year that Scholz’s government had reconsidered the goal of allocating 2% of GDP to defense. The government, however, denied this.
Commenting on the budget situation for next year, Boris Pistorius said on Monday that “I will have to adapt and manage as best as I can.”
The three-party governing coalition promised that the budget agreement reached last Friday would meet the commitment to allocate over 2% of GDP to defense and that by 2028 an additional €30 billion would be allocated to meet the target once Scholz’s special fund is exhausted. Despite expressing dissatisfaction, Boris Pistorius stated that in the medium term, Germany will spend “more than ever” in the country’s history on armaments by 2028.
Germany Criticized for Years Over Military Spending
NATO allies have criticized Berlin for years for not meeting the commitment to allocate 2% of GDP to defense, considering that Germany is the largest economic power in the European Union.
The German government responded to these criticisms by stating that in absolute terms, it spends more on the military than other EU countries, precisely due to the size of its economy.
From 2011 to 2021, Germany allocated between 1.14% and 1.39% of GDP annually to military spending, according to Statista. A classified report obtained by Der Spiegel in December 2022 stated that the German army (Bundeswehr) has logistical deficiencies that currently prevent it from fulfilling missions assigned within NATO.
At the Wales Summit in September 2014, NATO leaders agreed that within 10 years, member countries of the Alliance would reach the target of allocating 2% of GDP to the defense budget.
This decision was a reaction to what was perceived as a deterioration in the security situation in Europe, a few months after Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula.
