Germany has suggested that it could boost defence spending to 5% of GDP, putting the country in line with US President Donald Trump’s demands.
Trump has long urged NATO partners to increase their military expenditure. Initially, he wanted to see each country spend 2% of GDP on defence, but the figure late rose to 5%.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul spoke about the issue with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Turkey, where talks between Russia and Ukraine are due to take place.
Wadephul said for the first time that Germany would follow the US President’s plea to increase defence spending to 5% of GDP.
“We are following him there,” Wadephul said.
Why the change of heart?
Former Chancellor Olaf Scholz, of the Social Democrats (SPD), distanced himself from Trump’s higher demand, explaining this year that “5% would be over €200 billion per year”.
The federal budget “does not even amount to €500 billion”, Scholz said in Bielefeld in January.
“That would only be possible with massive tax increases or massive cuts to many things that are important to us,” he added.
Meanwhile, the new Chancellor Friedrich Merz said during the election campaign that GDP percentages were “not expedient”.
At an event in early January, he explained that “whether it’s 2, 2.5 or 5%, to be honest, that’s only of secondary importance to me”.
‘The strongest army in Europe’
For Merz, it is crucial that Germany invests more in its army, which is known as the Bundeswehr.
In his first government statement on Wednesday, Merz said it would become the “conventionally strongest army in Europe”.
The Bundeswehr currently lacks personnel. Nevertheless, there will be no compulsory military service for the time being, confirmed SPD Defence Minister Boris Pistorius.
Military service will continue to be based on voluntary service, inspired by the Swedish model.
To change this, the new German government would require two-thirds of politicians to back it in the Bundestag, a majority which it does not have.
The leftist Die Linke or The Left party, which currently has 64 members in parliament, is opposed to compulsory military service.
Ates Gürpinar, the party’s deputy federal chairman, told Euronews: “The Left Party rejects compulsory military service. The suspension of conscription in 2011 was a great success for the conscientious objection movement.”
This means that the German government can only pass a new conscription law with the votes of the far-right AfD party, whose election manifesto stated that conscription should not be for women.
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