New Giga -Budget – Strongest Army in Europe? Germany is serious

The times of the tree look beyond. Merz apparently wants to become a Superlative Chancellor. His policy change is also an acoustic – with him as a director.

What this means must be shown in the Bundeswehr. The German army would grow again under its leadership. Even more: Germany will again put off “his strength”.

In his first government speech in the Bundestag on Wednesday, Merz attracted your attention: “In the future, the federal government will offer all the financial resources that the Bundeswehr needs to become the strongest army in Europe conventionally.” Thunder -weather, as the German says!

The new self -image
Such sentences were largely taboo with our neighbor because of his historical debt. But the coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD is already dreaming. Less than 24 hours after Merz’s speech, his Foreign Minister Johan Wadephul promised a massive increase in defense expenditure during a NATO meeting of Foreign Ministers in Turkey.

Germany will follow the United States for the purpose of five percent of the defense budget, the most important diplomat said on Thursday. In recent decades, the Bundeswehr was more of a Rumpel room. So far, two percent of GDP is the target, but even this obstacle was usually too high for the largest economic power in Europe.

For classification: the new budget is in theory more than 215 billion euros per year and corresponds to the gross domestic product of the EU State of Hungary. Merz multiplications (last year there were around 90 billion) the costs for the army in the medium term.

Budget trick makes new debts possible
How should that work? The preparatory work for this was done shortly after the elections and still in the old legislative period. A trillion financial package was implemented in the Bundestag under the leadership of Merz to the surprise of many. In one falling dive, new megalips were made possible in a volume that has not yet existed in the history of the Federal Republic. In the election campaign, the CDU leader had promised the reduction of debts.

A creative mechanism is especially useful for high editions with a defense character. If this is more than one percent of gross domestic product, around 44 billion euros, these loans can be brought beyond the in -house debt brake. That means: there are no more limits.

Merz justified his turn with the increasing transatlantic alienation. Europe is increasingly confronted with Russia’s imperialism alone. The former EU head diplomat Josep Borrell said with a view to Vladimir Putin that Germany “had seen the wolf’s ears”. “Or the bear …”

Rutte -Model is supposed to pacify Trump
Now it must be upgraded along the line. An approach is that the five percent of GDP is split. Foreign Minister Wadephul made it clear that 3.5 percent could flow into traditional defense expenditure. The rest (1.5 percent) must be inserted in militarily usable infrastructure. Such a procedure recently proposed the NATO secretary-general Mark Rutte and leaves room for how the obstacle can be taken. Expenditure for streets, bridges, tunnels, rails or ports can be reported to NATO with this model. Only a defense reference needs to be made.

The year 2032 is a possible period for the fulfillment of the new goal. US President Donald Trump wants the five percent obstacle to be decided in the next NATO top in The Hague in June. Internally it was recently threatened with the fact that he would otherwise stay away from the meeting. This would be a debacle for NATO, because the deterrent is still largely based on the military skills of nuclear super power.

For Merz and the rest of Europe, a dance starts on the razor blade. Forgrunning wants to emancipate yourself from Trump America without having to do without the power of the US Army. The impatient US president must be satisfied with creative accounting. His required obstacle of five percent results in at least 3.5 plus 1.5. Trump’s expectations are clear: “We will follow him and we will see a clear effort from the United States of America on Article 5,” Wadephul said alongside the American State Secretary Marco Rubio in Turkey.

Until it’s time, the trenches should not be too deep because the own military device must be further dusted. For this, however, the Bundeswehr would need staff that there is no such thing.

The German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius has a compulsory military service given the Russian threat and lack of staff. This is not referred to in the coalition agreement and is “initially” based on voluntary, he said on Wednesday in the Bundestag. But: “I am deliberately and frankly that the emphasis is initially if we cannot win enough volunteers,” said the SPD politician.

“We will improve the personnel situation in the medium and long term, so that the Bundeswehr is constantly set up for home protection and for Alliance Defense.” Many now see the real turning point. The CDU foreign politician Norbert Röttgen has already sung (see tweet above) The new German self -image in the Bondsten: “Europe can, if it wants. And Germany now becomes a power that occurs to ensure that Europe wants and can!”

The joint development of a new precision weapon with a series of more than 2000 kilometers between Germany and Britain is a lighthouse project. Or as Merz says: deterrence is the best defense. “There are few teachings from recent history that can be transferred to the present, just as precisely as this,” said the German Chancellor on Wednesday. The man of the pointed words seems serious. You will measure it.