Just days after the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, and a heartfelt Linkedin post from the Bundeswehr Chief of Staff, General Alfons Mais, about the state of disrepair of the German armies , the new German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, surprised all of his audience, at the Bundestag and everywhere in Europe, by announcing a plan to remobilize and rebuild the military capabilities of the German armies for become the first conventional army in Europe, by rapidly increasing the defense budget to more than 2% of GDP, ie more than €75 billion, and by creating a special investment fund endowed with €100 billion to compensate for the greatest short-term failures. However, in the opinion of the military, opposition MPs and also certain members of the government coalition across the Rhine, the situation of the Bundeswehr has continued to deteriorate since this announcement, and the effects of the Special Fund are slow to be felt, mired as it is in innumerable arbitrations and politico-administrative delays.
This is in any case what denounces the vice-president of the parliamentary group of the Union, the deputy Johann Wadephul (CDU), who does not stop criticizing Christine Lambrecht, the German Minister of Defense, adding that " There is a lack of will and leadership from the ministry and Christine Lambrecht. Under his responsibility, the Bundeswehr becomes weaker every day, not the other way around. It's a fatal development right now“. But the criticisms are not limited to the opposition, members of the government coalition and even the SPD not hesitating to question the current governance of the defense effort. Thus, for Sebastian Schäfer, member of the Greens party, Chairman of the Budget Committee at the Bundestag and member of the committee supervising the use of the special investment fund, the procedures for acquiring new weapons take far too long, whereas the money is already available but not used.
Even within the SPD, the main government coalition party to which Olaf Scholz belongs, certain criticisms of government slowness are emerging, as for Eva Högl, Commissioner for the Armed Forces, who declared that the present situation could not last long, and required a rapid Change of direction. As for German industrialists, they too have recently given voice, in particular to criticize government arbitration in terms of equipment, deemed to be too easily turned towards global off-the-shelf solutions imported, without involving national capacities, including for maintenance. . It is true that to date, according to the announcements already made, more than 40 of the €100 billion available will be fully invested in the United States for purchase of F-35A, CH-47 helicopters and Patriot missiles, among others, which is as much or even more than the envelope provided for German companies.
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[…] to bring the country's defense effort "beyond 2% of GDP", breaking with 3 decades of chronic under-investment by the Bundeswehr, which today is more like an administration than a army […]
[…] bellows has somewhat fallen back across the Rhine. On the one hand, almost 10 months after its announcement, none of the programs to be financed by the special envelope have been effective…, while the increase in the defense budget to more than 2% of German GDP, also […]