Germany It has approved a constitutional reform to carry out a historical increase in defense expenditure to rearm the country. This to the growing distancing from USA With Europe in the era of Donald Trumpuncertainty about the future of NATO and the persistent threat of Russia. For now, some ambitious plans that reflect these new times are already outlining, such as the possibility of converting a plant of the Volkswagen company into a tank factory.
With 517 votes in favor and 207 against a total of 720 seats, the German Parliament approved last week exempting the military spending of strict federal norms on national debt embodied in the Fundamental Law in force since 1949.
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From now on, defense spending will no longer be subject to the call “Debt brake”a constitutional disposition that strictly limits the indebtedness of the federal government to only 0.35% of GDP.
A machine gun and the German army logo (Bundeswehr) are seen in a leopard 2. (Photo of Ina Fassbender / AFP).
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So, Any military spending that exceeds 1 % of GDP, about 43,000 million euros, will be excluded from the indebtedness limit.
The outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholzhe said that the country needed a new defense and security policy, and that the Bundeswehr (the armed forces) needed special attention.
Before the reform, the future chancellor Friedrich Merz He had already made his defense plans public.
Merz said he plans to spend at least 100,000 million euros annually (almost 107,000 million dollars) in defense. This money will be used to buy new equipment and reinforce the country’s military capacities.
At this point, it should be noted that in 2024 Germany allocated 90,590 million euros to your defense budget, which represented around the 2.12% of GDP. This significant increase allowed him to achieve the spending objective of the 2% of GDP established by NATO. Anyway, it is far from 5% required by Trump to the countries of Europe that are part of the Atlantic Alliance.
The expenditure in defense of Germany and other NATO countries. (AFP).
To have an idea of the dimension of spending that plans GermanyIt is worth mentioning that USAthe greatest war power in the world, allocated 886,000 million dollars in defense at 2024. While that Russia allocated 462,000 million dollars That same year.
Merz also announced that he was going to propose a special fund of 500,000 million euros to modernize the outdated German infrastructure and help end two years of recession.
Russia could attack from here to 2030
Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) of Germany and the main candidate for chancellor of his party, addresses his followers after his triumph in the elections. (Photo of Ina Fassbender / AFP).
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The international analyst Francisco Belaunde Matossian explained to Commerce that Germany He has serious problems with his army due to the lack of maintenance of his teams and lack of weapons, since the investments that were required to be at the level of the greatest powers were not made.
“Germany relied too much on states Joined. That is why now you have to invest more in defense. All of Europe is in the same situation, except Poland, which some time ago began its rearmament and spends 4% of its GDP, and the Baltic countries, which are closer to Russia, ”said Belaunde.
With respect to the United States Armament Dependency, Germany is pending the delivery of 35 American F-35 combat planess. Could that business drop the current circumstances?
Belaunde explained that in Europe There is fear that USA Keep some control over airplanes, tanks and other weapons, and that, eventually, disconnect them to stop working.
“But more realistic could be that if there is a strong discrepancy with Europe, Donald Trump orders that the aircraft software is not updated, or that the exhibits are not delivered,” Belaunde said.
But also remarked that Germany He decides to put aside the F-35, it will be difficult to get an equivalent that this is available in the market for the short term, because usually the delivery of such weapons takes several years.
As to The greatest threat to Germany, Belaunde said that European leaders fear that Russia attack Europespecifically to the border countries, and that everyone has to join in the defense of the aggregate.
“If Donald Trump retires to NATO United States, That could lead Russia to attack to test the response capacity of Europe Without Washington’s support. There are intelligence reports that say Russia In the next 3 to 5 years he could launch an attack on its European neighbors, so Europe has proposed 2030 as a goal for its rearmament, ”said Belaunde.
About the future of NATOexplained that Europeans are willing to assume 60% of the alliance budget, as a way to compensate for what it allocates USA.
“The destiny of NATO is uncertain, like everything with Donald Trump, because he is apprehended and is surrounded by pro -rash,” he said.
A Volkswagen plant to make tanks
In tune with the current times, the German company Rheinmetallthe largest manufacturer of ammunition Europeexceeded market value to the largest automotive in the continent, Volkswagen.
On March 13, the stock market capitalization of Rheinmetall It stood at 56.6 billion euros (61.5 billion dollars), compared to 55.4 billion euros Volkswagen.
Rheinmetall has also tripled its market value since Trump’s choicedriven by the expectation of an increase in Europe’s military spending.
Not only that, now Volkswagen and Rheinmetall They are negotiating an agreement for the sale of the Osnabrück car plant to become a tank factory.
The general director of Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, has said that the Volkswagen plant in Osnabrück could be “adequate” for the production of military vehicles.
In addition, Rheinmetall is in the process of converting another two automotive plants of Germany For the production of military equipment.
