Germany backs down on its defense budget ambitions in its first National Strategic Review

On February 27, 2022, 3 days after the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine, the newly elected German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, addressed an exceptional session of the Bundestag, parliamentarians and a worried German public opinion to present a new defense policy.

The German leader was thus responding to the alarming observation published by the Chief of Staff of the Bundeswehr, two days earlier, on the professional social network LinkedIn, according to which the German armies were unable to resist a military offensive like the one launched by Moscow against its neighbour.

For this, Olaf Scholz made two key announcements, so as to give back to the German armies the means necessary for their missions. Firstly, an exceptional budget of €100 billion would be allocated to allow a rapid recapitalization of the Bundeswehr, by dealing with the most significant shortcomings, and thus quickly return to a sufficiently effective posture to potentially deter Moscow from any aggression.

Secondly, in order to absorb changes in format and the sliding modernization of equipment essential to the long-term functioning of a modern army, the chancellor also made a commitment to bring the German defense effort by 1,5 % to 2% by 2025, and thus meet the NATO requirements voted unanimously in 2014 by all members of the alliance in Cardiff.

Let us recall that a few months earlier, the German government, of which Olaf Scholz was Minister of Finance, had announced its intention to only aim for the 2% objective for its defense effort in 2035, and not in 2025 as it was previously planned. was engaged in it.

Since this announcement, it is clear that things have not evolved as hoped, at least for the Bundeswehr. On the one hand, the use of the €100 billion envelope, which we could hope would be used quickly to overcome the main short-term shortcomings, took some time to begin, even if for several weeks , things have accelerated in this area.

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