In the coming year, the Bundeswehr will not receive the funds that it thinks it needs and that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has promised.

This is the conclusion drawn by the opposition after the adjustment session on the 2023 budget. While the traffic light politician Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann (FDP) said that the budget was “round”, the defense policy spokesman for the Union faction Florian Hahn (CSU) said: “Olaf Scholz ' The turning point has finally stopped.

The traffic light factions are mercilessly cashing in on Scholz's promise to invest more than two percent of gross domestic product in our defense.” The current draft budget is missing around 16 billion euros, which Scholz had pledged when he announced on February 27:

"From now on we will invest more than two percent of the gross domestic product in our defense every year." The Union had applied to increase the budget by 3.9 billion euros and to invest money from the special fund more quickly in order to do what is also symbolically important achieve the two percent target.

These proposals were rejected.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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One of the news from the adjustment meeting, in which the budget holders put the final touches on the budgets, is an additional item for ammunition of around 1.1 billion euros.

In addition, authorizations were granted to spend a further 500 million in each of the following years.

The procurement backlog for ammunition within the Bundeswehr is estimated at 20 billion euros.

While the Ministers for Foreign Affairs and Development Cooperation, Annalena Baerbock (Greens) and Svenja Schulze (SPD), were each able to secure an additional billion euros for their houses in the adjustment meeting, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had to settle for a plus of a few million .

The defense budget is said to total 50.1 billion.

In addition, it is planned to withdraw 8.4 billion from the 100 billion euros in special debt that the Bundestag has provided to strengthen the armed forces.

It remains unclear what will become of the German-French projects for a combat aircraft and the battle tank of the future.

The Budget Committee has requested status reports from the Ministry for this purpose.

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