Germany commits 100 billion euros to new armed forces fund

[TaylorSwift 162,482]

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that Germany is committing 100 billion euros to a special fund for its armed forces, raising its defense spending above 2 percent of GDP.

“It’s clear we need to invest significantly more in the security of our country, in order to protect our freedom and our democracy,” said Scholz.

The move is a significant one for Germany, which has come under criticism from the United States and other NATO allies for not investing adequately in its defense budget.

 

[CyberRaga 342]

I'm not familiar with Germany's energy policy etc, but why not rather invest that ''extra'' money for energy industry in a way, that could make Germany (and whole EU) independent from Russia. 

[azul 2,099]

Now that is something new. It's a new era in Europe, we are not coming back to 2019. 

[Dojo 19,823]

yu next time you criticize how much your country invest on military think about what happened to Ukraine. 

[Electric Mary 1,051]

6 minutes ago, DanielM said:

Now that is something new. It's a new era in Europe, we are not coming back to 2019. 

Things were already doomed to end this way long before 2019....we are just witnessing collateral damage made by nuclear powers like the U.S and Russia on foreign policy for the last 10-15 years. Greed and paranoia from these 2 countries led us to this situation 

[azul 2,099]

Not to be *that* person, but the fact Germany is ready to do the rearmament of their military capacities will boost the economy of Central Europe. I know that is terrible, but the trade of commodities related to arms will benefit some European countries. Perhaps even my country (Portugal).

Besides that, I don't think NATO will protect us like we used to believe they would do. So I think this is a good thing and I believe every European country should do the same. At least they should invest 2% of their GDP as it is written in NATO's rulebook.

[TheSlash 14,539]

8 minutes ago, CyberRaga said:

I'm not familiar with Germany's energy policy etc, but why not rather invest that ''extra'' money for energy industry in a way, that could make Germany (and whole EU) independent from Russia. 

This is actually really good news. Germany's armed forces (the Bundeswehr) has been chronically underfunded and technologically not at all well equipped.

In the same speech, Scholz also talked about alternative sources of energy to not be dependent on one huge country. On the coast new infrastructure will be installed to get liquid natural gas (I guess, as I'm not familiar with this area , please correct me if someone knows it better than me   ).

[Guest]

scary but necessary

[Der Meister 3,000]

Poland is shook. 

All jokes aside, this is a historic moment for Europe.

[HermioneT 1,998]

Such a waste of money. I wonder who will use this equipment because at least everyone I know definitely won't join any kind of forces. Actually the first of my male friends left already for Switzerland.

Please just take someone take down this madman, so that everyone can get back to concentrate on important matters.

[BornAsUnic0rn 2,247]

1 hour ago, CyberRaga said:

I'm not familiar with Germany's energy policy etc, but why not rather invest that ''extra'' money for energy industry in a way, that could make Germany (and whole EU) independent from Russia. 

Ofc energy independence is another thing that reached a new priority level. Priorities changed drastically in the political discourse in Germany these last weeks.  But our military literally was lifted from a little side note to one of THE the top priorities with this decision. The world changed fundamentally when Putin’s troops went into the Ukraine. This was at least a long overdue wake up call for the United Nations, for the West, for Europe, for the Nato, for the EU, for democracy, the way we operate on a global level..

And Germany, a country that deliberately underfunded, ruined and underdeveloped it’s own Bundeswehr (english literally: Federal Defense) to a point where we could barely even defend our own country, because of the burden and shame of our dark history, deciding to finally strengthen and fund our own armed forces, for our security and the security of Europe and the EU in a new world shows that. That decision is MAJOR. We are also allowing German defense weapons to be given to the Ukraine by other countries, and our government decided that WE OURSELVES are going to help the Ukraine with weapons. That is huge, our government is basically doing a 180 on everything right now.

[BornAsUnic0rn 2,247]

42 minutes ago, HermioneT said:

Such a waste of money. I wonder who will use this equipment because at least everyone I know definitely won't join any kind of forces. Actually the first of my male friends left already for Switzerland.

Please just take someone take down this madman, so that everyone can get back to concentrate on important matters.

Switzerland’s military defense is actually INSANE. Meanwhile Germany was faithful reckless and said “what’s internal security? no one would want to hurt us anyways” for decades. So I don’t know what you are trying to say? 

In Germany we don’t have the Wehrpflicht anymore. In Switzerland they still have Militärpflicht. That’s why no one here in Germany would do it.

[HermioneT 1,998]

15 minutes ago, BornAsUnic0rn said:

Switzerland’s military defense is actually INSANE. Meanwhile Germany was faithful reckless and said “what’s internal security? no one would want to hurt us anyways” for decades. So I don’t know what you are trying to say? 

In Germany we don’t have the Wehrpflicht anymore. In Switzerland they still have Militärpflicht. That’s why no one here in Germany would do it.

Yeah I understand. But honestly, in coming generations noone will fight for one country any more, it's an rather outdated concept.

[BornAsUnic0rn 2,247]

35 minutes ago, HermioneT said:

Yeah I understand. But honestly, in coming generations noone will fight for one country any more, it's an rather outdated concept.

Still, Switzerland has only been able to be this consistent, independent,  peaceful and neutral, because they are prepared and ready like no other country for almost everything. Switzerland is proof for the importance of more than good security.
 

It takes one man in power going insane for things to go down. And that will always be a probability, especially since democracies are the best of all government systems but also the most fragile. So I‘d rather my country not to rely solely on peace. 

[SwissMonster 30,688]

Okay I guess, but where was that money for the Healthcare and School system during Corona? Wasn’t that an emergency too?

Also on the note of following:

1 hour ago, HermioneT said:

Yeah I understand. But honestly, in coming generations noone will fight for one country any more, it's an rather outdated concept.

Thats true, and I wouldn’t either and I hope for everyone that doesn’t wanna serve in military that nothing mandatory will be put in place BUT I disagree that its an outdated concept and I hope that still people will join military as other countries have this mandatory year to serve in the military and it would be dangerous to be defenseless. If you passed your 18s you are probably safe but the discussion to bring it back in Germany is imminent. Actually it was never lifted but just paused in germany! They could bring it back tomorrow if they wanted