Green party chancellor candidate Robert Habeck sharply rejected the criticism from Olaf Scholz (SPD) of his defense plans and accused the Federal Chancellor of having worn down the German military during the grand coalition.
“The German military was run down during the grand coalition, always under the motto, ‘it won’t matter anyway'” Habeck told the “Stern”. The special fund, with which we started to address the disaster, will not be available next year. “We must therefore do more in the coming years to protect the peace and the security of this country.”
The Green party candidate said he plans to finance massive defense spending with new billion-euro credits. “Germany must be capable of defense – in all areas, in cybersecurity, the protection of digital infrastructure, civil defense. And for that, the necessary money must be available. It’s clear that we can’t just cut it somewhere, but instead must take out credits for security” he said.
“The restrictive debt brake should not decide how safe Germany is. This question primarily addresses the Union. We must secure the peace and prevent further war.” Scholz had accused Habeck of not delivering proposals for financing the 3.5% of GDP defense budget.
The Economics Minister further said: “The threat to Germany and Europe is palpable: a war is raging at the doorstep of the European Union. Hybrid war is hitting Germany and its European allies. Geopolitically, it is foreseeable that we – Germany and Europe – must take more responsibility for our security, anything else would be naive in the face of the US’s military build-up.