Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel said that Europe faces the prospect of “pulverization” if it does not increase defence spending, something she massively failed to do during her long tenure as defacto leader of Europe when she had the power to do something about it.
In yet another example of major European figures finally agreeing with long-stated demands from U.S. President Donald Trump, former Chancellor Merkel admitted that military spending must drastically increase in Europe so that the continent can provide for its own defence rather than relying on America’s generosity.
Speaking at the Ständehaus meeting in Düsseldorf, Merkel said that Europe “will not be able to get by” with the NATO baseline defence spending requirement of 2 per cent of GDP, which her government consistently failed to meet during her tenure in Berlin.
The former German leader said that Europe “will be pulverized” if it fails to unite around the goal of increased military spending, the Rheinische Post reports.
Although Merkel attempted to blame leftist coalition partners for her government’s military failures, she admitted: “There are moments when I ask myself: Were we fast enough to increase defence spending?”.
President Trump frequently criticised Germany’s refusal to meet NATO spending requirements while, under Merkel, sending billions to Russia for natural gas.
In 2018, the American president said: “It is very sad when Germany makes a massive oil and gas deal with Russia, where we’re supposed to be guarding against Russia, and Germany goes and pays out billions and billions of dollars a year to Russia. We’re protecting Germany, we’re protecting France, we’re protecting all of these countries.”
Germany’s lack of strategic vision and failure to heed warnings from Trump over becoming “captive” to Moscow came to a head in 2022 when Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, leaving much of Europe flatfooted and mired in an energy crisis that persists to this day.
The hubris of the Merkel administration was laid bare after a declassified document, dated just four months before the invasion of Ukraine, revealed that her government thought that increasing energy reliance on Russia through the Nord Stream 2 pipeline would “not jeopardise” Germany’s energy security.
The incoming government of Merkel’s successor, Friedrich Merz, is attempting to change the constitution to finance fresh defence spending by lifting debt restrictions.
However, it is unlikely that there will be a quick fix to turn around the German military after years of neglect. On Tuesday, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Bundeswehr, Eva Högl, revealed that the number of unfilled military positions rose to 20 per cent last year, up from 18 per cent in 2020.
She said that 28 per cent of all enlisted roles were left vacant last year and that the total number of men and women in the Bundeswehr fell last year to 181,174, well below the stated goal of reaching 203,000 soldiers by 2031.
Perhaps most concerning, the German armed forces are also steadily ageing. According to Högl, the average age of military personnel rose to 34, up from 32.4 at the end of 2019.
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