The German Minister of the Armed Forces, Me Ursula Von der Leyen, officially issued a protest against the arbitrationsmade with regard to the limited increase in the army budget in the federal budget for 2018 and 2019.
While the announcements on the very significant operational limitations encountered by the German armed forces have followed one another in recent years, and despite the announcements which gave hope that the German army budget would indeed increase very significantly, the draft budget approved by Angela Merkel limits the increase to €1,5 billion in 2018, reaching €38,5 billion. In 2019, it is expected to grow by €3 billion, reaching €41,5 billion. Where this budget was to increase by €12 billion from 2019 to 2023, a minimum to recover a floored operational capacity, the budgetary plan of Olaf Scholz, the German budget minister, only provides for €5 billion.
These unfavorable decisions are the consequence of the results of the German elections, forcing Chancellor Merkel to ally herself with the very rigid SPD, while the CDU actively supported rapid growth in the army budget to reach 2% of GDP in 2025. Today today it is only 1,28%. In addition, the German budget suffers from a very significant "personnel costs" component, the German armies being obliged to take great care of its soldiers in a country with a very low unemployment rate and high salaries.
According to German media, the ministry is already preparing savings measures, which will of course focus on equipment programs. Thus, there is talk of withdrawing from the cooperation program with Norway concerning the shared design of a new generation version of the T212 submarine.
