Politics

No additional money boost for German military to be expected, says official

Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images
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German Finance Minister has said that there will be no additional money to modernize the country’s armed forces beyond what the coalition government has already agreed.

Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, in charge of efforts to undo years of neglect and strengthen Germany's defenses in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, recently expressed his disappointment with a budget that was agreed upon this month.

However, Finance Minister Christian Lindner dismissed these complaints as unwarranted in an interview set to air on ARD public television on Sunday.

“Mr. Pistorius has a €100 billion special fund for modernizing the armed forces, something none of his predecessors had,” said Lindner. “You can work with that, but you also have to make do with it.”

Lindner, the leader of the liberal Free Democrats, positions himself within Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-party coalition as a proponent of fiscal discipline, often clashing with the Social Democrats and Greens on financial matters.

Germany maintains the lowest debt-to-GDP ratio among the G7 group of major advanced economies.

However, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) noted this week that insufficient public infrastructure investment is a significant factor contributing to the country’s sluggish economic growth.
Source: Reuters
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