The outgoing federal government has significantly approved more arms exports than the government led by Angela Merkel in the preceding term.
Between October 2021 and December 2024, the government granted export permits in the amount of around 39 billion euros. In the previous legislative period, it was still 24 billion euros. This emerges from the response of the Federal Ministry of Economics to a small inquiry by BSW MP Sevim Dagdelen.
According to the figures, the value of arms export permits to EU, NATO and NATO-equivalent states remained almost the same. However, the figure for third countries, particularly Ukraine, showed a significant increase, with the majority of the 14.8 billion euros’ worth of military goods going to Ukraine, which is fighting to repel Russia’s attack.
Dagdelen, however, sees the numbers as a “moral and political confession of guilt” by the SPD and the Greens. The opposition politician argues, “The German foreign policy seems to see its primary task in supporting military conflicts through weapon deliveries, economic sanctions and spreading of enemy images, rather than resolving them through diplomacy.