While few commentators doubt that increasing military expenditures is necessary given Putin’s aggression in Ukraine, Scholz is coming under increasing criticism for the secretive and arguably undemocratic nature of his decision, with some members of the powerful parliamentary Green fraction going so far as to call the legitimacy of Scholz’s announcement into question. Read More: How Zelensky Galvanized Ukraine and the Worldīut even as the military’s procurement officers plan their purchases, public criticism of Scholz’s defense spending proposal grows louder. Instead, he seems to have consulted extensively only with Christian Lindner the Finance Minister and head of the FDP, a minority party in the current administration. Instead the decision was, according to reporting by the Süddeutsche Zeitung, kept almost entirely secret it appears, at least, that Scholz did not consult with anyone from the Green party, nor did he discuss his plans with Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht, or Rolf Mützenich, the parliamentary leader of the SPD. Jessica Rosenthal, a member of the Bundestag and the leader of the SPD’s youth organization complained that she was “very surprised” by the scope of Scholz’s “reversal of course.” It wasn’t only Rosenthal who was left out of deliberations regarding Scholz’s reversal of more then 70 years of German military policy. The Greens, like the SPD have traditionally been an antiwar party, and though there does seem to be a widespread feeling among members of both parties that an increase in the military budget is necessary in the current political crisis, the secretive manner of Scholz’s announcement has begun drawing increasing criticism. Germany’s Puma tanks will likely be retrofitted in advance of the deployment of a “supertank,” and the navy will build two new submarines in a joint venture with Norway. They’ll be new transport helicopters to replace the aging CH-53s, most likely American Chinooks or CH-53Ks. According to reporting by Die Welt, the Bundeswehr will replace the outdated Tornado strike aircraft, potentially with American F-35s, while continuing to develop the costly Eurofighter. “My goal, our goal is to have one of the most powerful militaries in Europe,” Finance Minister Christian Lindner told the ARD Morgenmagazin. The news-which sent the stocks of defense contractors sky-rocketing-fundamentally changes the nature of the German military. The spending represents a new era for the Bundeswehr, which has been kept deliberately small since the Second World War. Scholz needed a big word to justify the big spending package he was announcing-a 100 billion Euro one-time subsidy intended to bring the German military up to speed, followed by a proposed increase of military funding to amount to 2% of Germany’s gross domestic product by 2024.
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