A question from a German parliamentarian revealed massive arms deals that Germany concluded with Egypt in the last days before the departure of Chancellor Angela Merkel from power earlier this December.
The German news agency reported that the former German government - led by Merkel's Christian Alliance and the Social Democratic Party - agreed during the last nine days before the end of its mandate to arms exports worth nearly 5 billion euros, bringing German arms exports during 2021 to a record level. Just over 9 billion euros.
In a response from the German Ministry of Economy to a request for a briefing submitted by the Left Party Parliamentarian Sevim Daglin, Egypt ranked first in the list of countries receiving German weapons this year by a large margin.
The ministry indicated that the value of German arms exports to Egypt amounted to 180 million euros until last November 29, while the last nine days of the Merkel government witnessed the approval of Egypt alone on arms exports worth more than 4 billion euros.
And the German news agency indicates that the current chancellor, Olaf Schultz - who belongs to the Social Democratic Party - participates in bearing the responsibility for this decision, as the German Federal Security Council approved the export of frigates and air defense systems manufactured by ThyssenKrupp for Naval Systems and Dell. Diehl Defense.
It is noteworthy that the last record level for the value of German arms export licenses was in 2019, when weapons and military equipment were supplied with a value of just over 8 billion euros, while this year's exports are expected to exceed this number by at least one billion euros, according to the German agency.
Left party politician Sephim Daglin strongly criticized the current chancellor's behavior, saying that "he did a real deception in the caretaker government, and he showed amazingly how the SPD's criticism of immoral arms exports - especially to dictatorships and authoritarian regimes - remained without consequences, this is a heavy burden. For the new "traffic light" government led by Schultz.
It is noteworthy that the new German government - which includes the Social Democratic Party, the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party - agreed to pursue a restrictive policy on arms exports.
The ruling coalition agreement provides for the consolidation of current trends in law, with the aim of limiting arms exports to countries outside the European Union and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
During the negotiations to form the new ruling coalition, the Ministry of Economy and Climate Protection, which is also responsible for controlling arms exports, went to the Green Party, which has traditionally been highly critical of arms exports.