2023-12-09 11:17:29
General, you have been Germany’s top soldier for six months. What did you find?
Konrad Schuller
Political correspondent for the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung in Berlin.
I’ve been with the troops a lot in these six months and I’ve met highly committed, very energetic, reliable people everywhere. But I also see structures that make quick and targeted decisions almost impossible. I also see a Bundeswehr that has been focused on international crisis management over the years – for the Balkans, Afghanistan or Mali. And all available resources were used for this. This is taking its toll now that alliance and national defense are once again the focus. We now see a Bundeswehr that is not yet adequately positioned for this.
The financing of the Bundeswehr is on shaky ground. The military commissioner said that in order to be operational, you don’t need 100 billion in special funds, but 300 billion. Where will the money come from?
The Chancellor made it very clear at the Bundeswehr conference that there is reliability – not only in the special fund, but also in the two percent commitment for defense. This reliability is absolutely necessary for us as the armed forces over the next few years. And I have no reason to doubt this promise.
“What is the alternative?” Carsten Breuer in the column hall of the Ministry of Defense. : Image: Andreas Pein
The Bundeswehr is in a worse position today than it was at the beginning of Russia’s war against Ukraine – it has even less material and ammunition, and the personnel situation is anything but rosy. Where is the turning point?
I am a very impatient person and ask this question every day: How will the turning point materialize? We made a lot of decisions and got a lot of things underway at the same time. We have new defense policy guidelines, we are moving into a new structure for the Bundeswehr, and we have changed procurement in such a way that you can say: we have revolutionized it. If you then consider how we support Ukraine, that’s a lot. But you can’t change everything at a “blockbuster” pace just to get it off the table quickly in 90 minutes. What we have initiated cannot have an immediate impact, even though we have accelerated the processes enormously. Tanks don’t sit on the shelf and you don’t produce them in a week.
However, the current minister’s predecessor, Ursula von der Leyen, had already loudly proclaimed trend reversals: material trend reversal, personnel trend reversal, finance trend reversal. Now it’s called a turning point.
We now have start-up financing of 100 billion euros. That is the crucial point. We must stop the security policy pendulum between international operations and national and alliance defense and ultimately make both possible: international crisis management and national and alliance defense. The 100 billion and the two percent reliably help. This is what a turning point requires.
This text comes from the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung.
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