The SPD is discussing extensive investments in the Bundeswehr. A clear supporter is Defense Minister Boris Pistorius – who is now receiving support from Lars Klingbeil. At the same time, the SPD leader is criticizing the work of the former CDU ministers.
After initial reluctance, SPD leader Lars Klingbeil is now openly supporting the course of Defense Minister Boris Pistorius in the internal party controversy over extensive investments in the Bundeswehr.
“We have to invest more money in our security in the next few years if we want to live together in peace,” he told the editorial network Germany (RND). Klingbeil emphasized: “In view of the danger posed by aggressors like Russia, this means, above all, better positioning and equipping the Bundeswehr so that we are capable of defending ourselves and keeping Ukraine strong so that Putin is stopped. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has my full support if he promotes exactly this.”
The SPD leader sharply criticized Pistorius’s CDU predecessors: “Together with the Chancellor, he is clearing up the chaos that five CDU/CSU defense ministers left behind in the Bundeswehr,” said Klingbeil.
The economic policy spokesman for the SPD parliamentary group, Bernd Westphal, also told the RND with regard to the Russian attack on Ukraine on February 24, 2022: “The priorities have shifted since February 2022. When it comes to security and defense, we are in a historic emergency situation. We really cannot save on that.” It would be wrong to stick to the debt brake.
Pistorius (SPD) had called for defense spending and parts of crisis preparedness to be exempted from the debt brake – Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP) is of the opinion that aid for Ukraine will be provided without an exception to the debt brake. Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has not yet publicly supported Pistorius, but has stated that all cabinet members would have to “sweat” in the search for savings for the 2025 budget.