It has often been emphasized in recent days that nothing in European politics is the same as it was before Putin attacked Ukraine. But with this Sunday it is clear that this also applies to our country’s domestic politics. Olaf Scholz’s chancellorship has changed. Quickly and thoroughly, and in a direction he probably never imagined in his worst dreams. He has now gone from being the chancellor of minimum wage increases to the chancellor of security policy and – yes, of rearmament.
He took this into account with his clear speech in the special session of the Bundestag. The Bundeswehr, which has received little attention from politicians and certainly none from the population in recent decades, is now to be better equipped. 100 billion euros are to be paid into a special fund, and the budget of the Ministry of Defense is to be increased permanently.
But that doesn’t automatically produce better defense capability. Despite the blatant lack of equipment in the troops, the Ministry of Defense has made a name for itself in recent years with the absolutely excessive spending on external consultants. These cost 150 million euros. Yearly! There was a separate investigative committee for this, but it did not contribute significantly to the clarification. If many billions of euros are now made available out of turn, then the suspicion arises that quite a few of them could disappear into dark channels again.
Fortunately, in a democracy like Germany, there is an opposition in the Bundestag. It will possibly be more important in the next few years than it has previously estimated.