Reversal News Desk,
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has rejected the proposal of US President-elect Donald Trump. He said at an election event in West Germany on Monday (January 13), that in Germany, spending 5 percent of GDP means spending 200 billion euros on defense. Germany’s federal budget alone is not 500 billion euros. Deutsche Welle reports.
Scholz said, “We have to increase defense spending by raising taxes or cutting all other spending. But spending in all other sectors is very important for Germany. I will never cut pensions, I will not cut spending on local governments or transport infrastructure.”
In addition, Scholz said that last year, two percent of GDP was spent on defense. This is the first time since the Cold War that Germany spent two percent of GDP on defense. Scholz said that this spending will be maintained.
He said that those who are proposing to spend more than two percent of GDP should also tell where that money will come from?
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Scholz had told the German parliament that he would create a special fund of 100 billion euros for the German military.
But due to strict constitutional rules regarding the budget situation and deficit, Scholz could not do so. However, even after Scholz said this, German Defense Minister and his party leader Boris Pistorius said that spending on the military should be increased.
At an event on the occasion of the handover of state-of-the-art artillery to Ukraine, he said that increasing the power of the army should be our top priority in the coming days. We will maintain this trend in 2025. We know that in the years to come, we need to invest more in defense. It started with two percent of GDP. We need to increase that.
