In his first address as chancellor, Friedrich Merz vowed to allocate "all necessary financial resources" to transform Germany's military into the most powerful conventional force in Europe.
Credit: Shutterstock/photocosmos1
“Strength deters aggression; weakness invites it,” Merz told lawmakers during a speech in the Bundestag, Germany’s lower house of parliament, on Wednesday.
He emphasized that Germany must shoulder greater responsibility for Europe's defense in light of escalating threats from Russia.
“The federal government will ensure the German armed forces receive whatever funding is needed to become Europe’s strongest conventional army,” he stated.
Before assuming office, Merz’s coalition government passed reforms to ease Germany’s rigid debt limits in order to bolster military investment after years of neglect.
This reform allows defense spending exceeding 1% of GDP to bypass the country’s constitutional debt brake, a fiscal rule that had previously hindered efforts to enhance national security and meet NATO’s 2% GDP defense target.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, former Chancellor Olaf Scholz acknowledged that this initiative could eventually make Germany's army the largest conventional force among NATO’s European members.
Germany aims to increase its troop numbers to 203,000 by 2031, but progress has stalled. As of the end of last year, troop levels remained at approximately 181,000, according to the annual report from the country’s military ombudsman.