As underlined for a couple of days, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has publicly reiterated calls to increase German defense spending until 2021 in an escalating governing coalition dispute with the German Social Democrats (SPD) on Thursday. The 2% target of the GDP set by NATO is far from reach.

German minister of Defense Ursula von der Leyen repeatedly demands a serious budget increase for the Budeswehr. Illustrated her, Mrs von der Leyen during a vist to German troops in Afghanistan (Picture source: German MoD)

CDU deputy parliamentary faction leader Johann Wadephul told press that lifting defense expenditure to a level equivalent of 1.5 percent gross domestic product (GDP) by 2021 was "absolutely sensible and realistic." Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen (CDU) complains that her department is being snubbed in the first budgetary proposal presented recently by Finance Minister Olaf Scholz (SPD). Several recent reports have warned that much of the equipment used by the German Armed Forces is in a deplorable state, undermining the ability of troops to respond to international crises. As a consequence, defense and international development spending would have to be raised in tandem from as early as 2019 onwards.

The CDU politician highlighted that annual defense expenditure of 1.5 percent of GDP, or around 49 billion euros (58.7 billion U.S. dollars), had already been suggested by the German government's armed forces commissioner Hans-Peter Bartels (SPD) back in 2017. He noted that even at that elevated level, Germany would still fail to comply with the official NATO target for annual defense spending of two percent of GDP.