BERLIN (dpa-AFX) – Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) has received the backing of his party leadership for the demand for a multi-billion increase in the defense budget. “That has my support,” said SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil on Tuesday in Berlin. In the past you have felt too safe. This certainty disappeared on February 24th. Rather, what is needed now is reasonable financial resources armed forces. He was glad that Pistorius opened the debate again.
The head of the Munich Security Conference, Christoph Heusgen, also called for Pistorius’ demands to be taken seriously and implemented. “We are at a turning point and Putin is at the door,” he said. Heusgen presented his new book in conversation with Klingbeil on Tuesday. In it he deals with Germany’s future role in the world and the foreign policy of the former chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) apart, which he had advised for years.
Last week, the “Spiegel” and the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” reported that Pistorius’ ministry had requested an additional ten billion euros for the 2024 budget and the budgets for the following years. The defense budget would then be around 60 billion euros. The money is to be used to fill ammunition depots and pay for the maintenance of the device, which is to be purchased with the 100 billion euro special fund.
Klingbeil also called for a “ramp up on armaments”. The material inventory in the Bundeswehr is not such that it would be relaxed in the case of alliance and national defense. “We have to make a pact with the defense industry in Germany,” he said. Massive investments will have to be made in the next 15 to 20 years. Politicians must create planning security for this. “This will mean that we are stronger again,” said the SPD leader.
Klingbeil had already demanded last year that Germany should pursue the claim of a “leading power” and that the military should be understood as a political tool. As a result of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine, the Social Democrats want to reorganize their foreign and security policy at a party conference in December./jwe/DP/jha