The Government increases defense spending by up to 8% and will allocate 5,000 million to weapons plans despite the rejection of Podemos

Yes, there will be an increase in

spending in the 2023 Budgets. Despite the internal dispute between the government partners, where United We Can reject this increase, finally the preliminary draft of public accounts reflects an increase of up to 8% taking into account European funds, 6% without taking this aid into account.

It goes from 9,791 million in 2022 to 12,317 million by 2023 as a global calculation.

Within this framework, the

will allocate 4,900 million to special modernization plans, also called special armament plans.

It has been one of the points of friction, of clash between the partners.

In the first meeting, in August, between PSOE and United We Can to negotiate the Budgets, the purple delegation already made it clear that they rejected an increase in defense spending.

But in the socialist sector they were clear that it was imperative to fulfill the commitments made by Pedro Sánchez with

and

, to reach 2% of GDP in 2029 and increase the amount each year.

"The president's commitments are fulfilled," said

, Minister of Finance, after the Council of Ministers approved the draft Budget.

And she has taken the opportunity to send a clear message to her partners at United We Can, anticipating criticism or possible discomfort: she has revealed that while Defense rises 6%, the Ministries of Podemos do so in greater numbers.

Specifically, the budget for

rose by 18% and that of

by 14%.

The argument of the Minister of Finance is aimed at trying to deactivate the discourse of all her partners, government and governance, that money is allocated to Defense when it should be allocated to other items.

The

wants to explain that no money has been withdrawn from the social funds, and for this it focuses on the ministries of

, which are growing.

Apart from this increase in Defense spending, an important part is due to the increase in the military's wage bill -motivated by the rise in the military's wage bill-, the Government also increases the money it will allocate to special plans for modernization.

Specifically, according to the Treasury, 4,900 million will be allocated.

As this newspaper has been reporting, this was another way for La Moncloa to increase military spending.

In 2022, the money allocated to these special modernization programs amounted to 2,848 million, when the money budgeted in 2020 was 2,164 million, and in 2021 it was 2,341 million.

In other words, this item has grown in each Pedro Sánchez public accounts project.

The special armament plans (PEA)

appear in the Budgets, specifically in the “Expenses” section.

Budget by programs and memory of objectives”, framed in “Section 14. Ministry of Defense”, and there under the heading “Report of objectives of the programs of the sector” is the section

Special modernization programs and special armament plans respond to the same thing.

The Treasury defends that they do not count in the financial spending limit to try to avoid the rejection of United We Can and governance partners such as

or

, among others.

Among the latest essential weapons programs to which the Government has budgeted important items is the

(340 million for 2020 accounts), the 8x8 wheeled combat vehicle (30 million), the

(250 million), the

aircraft

(593.8 million) or the

tanks (267.7 million).

Adding these weapons plans to the increase in the Defense budget, the total increase would be 25.8%.

From the Treasury, he defends that these investments will allow the generation, according to his calculations, of up to 22,667 jobs, and they state that it is money that, in addition to stimulating national industry -with companies such as Indra, Airbus...-, represents a lever for the creation of " hybrid technologies with a high added value of knowledge" and allows investment "in R+D+i technology in the cutting-edge sector that are spearheads for other areas".

He wants to demystify that "militaristic vision" of defense spending.

Conforms to The Trust Project criteria

Know more