A German FDP defense expert, Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann, has expressed skepticism about the possibility of the party’s approval of a special fund for the German Armed Forces in the old Bundestag.
Strack-Zimmermann, who chairs the Defense Committee in the European Parliament, told the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung” that she cannot envision the FDP faction, which was voted out by the electorate on Sunday, “winking through a constitutional amendment between the Bundestag door and the plenum’s angle and just before the new Bundestag is constituted.” Although she, as a security policy expert, has “great sympathies” for a further special fund for the Bundeswehr due to the security situation, she feels a “slight discomfort with the democratic understanding” in the face of the CDU’s proposal.
CDU leader Friedrich Merz had surprised many by proposing to push through a billion-euro special fund for security and defense with the old Bundestag’s majorities, prior to the new parliament’s first meeting in late March. The background is the Sperrminorität of AfD and the Left Party in the new parliament.
Strack-Zimmermann expressed her doubt that Merz has a long-term strategy, stating, “He must, in the following years, independently of a further special fund for security and defense, ensure that the growth of the Bundeswehr’s budget is continuously financed from the federal budget.” She suspects that Merz’s move is, in reality, an attempt to secure financial leeway for coalition talks by offering gifts to the Social Democrats.