2024-08-24 23:39:27
In order to plug the budget hole, the traffic light coalition does not want to approve any new military aid to Ukraine. It is a cowardly decision.
Now the federal government’s budget dispute has finally reached foreign policy. On Saturday, the “Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung” (FAS) reported that the federal government had decided not to provide any more military aid to Ukraine due to the budget deficit. The currently planned funds can still be made available, but almost nothing more seems possible.
According to sources in the Ministry of Finance, frozen Russian assets worth 50 billion dollars are to be used for arms aid in the future. The federal government is apparently working on this together with the EU and the G7 states. But it may take some time before such a financing instrument is available.
This also means that the German government is paralyzing its ability to react to security policy eventualities that ultimately affect Germany. Because Ukraine is not only fighting for its own survival. It is also fighting against Russian imperialism.
But the traffic light coalition is betraying this fight and, with it, an allied state, just to save itself through a rotten budget compromise.
The traffic light coalition’s budget plan puts people’s lives in Ukraine at risk. As the “FAS” writes, Germany has already decided not to buy an Iris-T system for Ukraine. In addition to other weapons systems, Iris-T is particularly important for Ukraine because it can help ensure parity in the air. With the air defense system developed by Diehl, users can not only shoot down cruise missiles and rockets, but also enemy helicopters and fighter planes.
But it is not just the systems that are not being delivered to Kiev that are a problem. Material is also becoming scarce at the front. There is not enough ammunition for the artillery, so the Ukrainian army cannot take advantage of the rapid rate of fire of the Panzerhaubitze 2000 and has to limit itself to a few shots per day. In addition, existing equipment cannot be repaired on site because spare parts are not available.
The Ministry of Defense can no longer procure these spare parts to send to Ukraine to enable the military equipment to be repaired there. Because the coalition lacks the money, infantry fighting vehicles, artillery and battle tanks must now be transported from the battlefields in Ukraine back to Germany, repaired there and then brought back to the front.
This can sometimes take months – time that the Ukrainian army does not have in its fight against the Russian imperialist aggressors.
There are much better ways to plug the hole in the traffic light budget. Lindner, Habeck, Scholz and Co. could agree to abolish the commuter allowance. This would immediately free up tax revenues of around six billion euros. The company car privilege also costs the state between three and a half and five and a half billion euros annually.
If it is abolished, however, one could alienate one’s own electorate. And the traffic light parties want to avoid that at all costs, a good year before the next federal election – and a few weeks before the state elections in Thuringia and Saxony.
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The federal government could also save many millions on the ministerial allowance, an extra flat rate for employees in federal ministries. If the traffic light coalition were to abolish this relic from the Weimar Republic, it could save at least 90 million euros per year.
So the traffic light government prefers to make a cowardly decision. A decision that may be approved by AfD and BSW voters, but will cost lives in Ukraine. In effect, it is a betrayal of Ukraine in order to save one’s own skin.