At the end of February, Chancellor Scholz announced an increase in military spending as a reaction to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. The Bundeswehr is to receive 100 billion euros from the planned special fund. The Bundestag approves an amendment to the Basic Law.
With the votes of the traffic light coalition and the opposition Union, the Bundestag changed the Basic Law in order to place the planned special fund for the Bundeswehr of 100 billion euros on constitutional ground. In the vote on Friday in Berlin, the required two-thirds majority for the change came together, as the Bundestag Presidium announced.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced the special fund in his “Zeitenwende” speech on February 27 as a reaction to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine. “We are facing up to our historical responsibility,” campaigned Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner before the vote for the project. The amendment to the Basic Law stipulates that a new, debt-financed 100 billion euro fund for better equipment for the Bundeswehr does not fall under the debt brake.
The fund itself will be set up by a simple law that the Bundestag wanted to vote on this afternoon. According to the economic plan available so far, a large part of the special assets should go to the Air Force. This includes the procurement of the successor to the Tornado, the US fighter jet F-35, but also the development and purchase of the ECR Eurofighter and the procurement of heavy transport helicopters. The 100 billion euros are in addition to the annual defense budget of around 50 billion euros. The resolutions still have to be confirmed by the Federal Council, which is expected.