Scholz rejects Trump’s 5% demand for defense spending

Speaking at the first stop of his election campaign tour in Bielefeld, German chancellor Olaf Scholz addressed the controversy surrounding a potential defence budget increase, raised by US President-elect Donald Trump last week. Scholz said he would not be raising the budget but would adhere to the current NATO target of at least two percent.

Trump had criticised Europe’s contributions to NATO and suggested member states to increasetheir defence spending to five percent of their gross domestic product (GDP).

Scholz pushed back and said five percent would be too costly.

“Five percent would be over 200 billion euros per year, the federal budget is not even 500 billion,” he said during his election campaign event in Bielefeld.

He added that such a target would only be doable with “massive tax increases or massive cuts to many things that are important to us.”

“I guarantee that we will continue to spend two percent of our economic output on defense,” he said. “Anyone who says that’s not the way to go must also say where the money will come from,” he concluded.

Germany is one of the closest allies to the US in Western Europe. After he is sworn into office on January 20, Trump is expected to put pressure onto Germany on an economical level, as well as in terms of security policy.

Germany’s conservatives, the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU), prioritised defence spending in their election campaigns.

Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany’s opposition Christian Democrat Union (CDU) and the man tipped to succeed Scholz as chancellor, on Wednesday said the country would spend more on defence but he would not be drawn on a specific spending target.

“The 2, 3 or 5% (targets) are basically irrelevant, the decisive factor is that we do what is necessary to defend ourselves,” Merz told public broadcaster Bayerischer Rundfunk.

While both parties are performing well in the polls, their proposal to increase defence spending does not seem to align with popular demand of German voters.

Germany’s election campaign in full swing

Scholz kicked off his election campaign tour in Bielefeld. The German chancellor is planning more than 30 public talks between now and February 23, the day of the election.

The event in Bielefeld was disrupted by two hecklers who protested against Israel’s war in Gaza. The two were subsequently escorted out of the hall.

Otherparties also kicked off their election campaigns ahead of the national elections.

The CDU and its candidate, Friedrich Merz, are leading polls with around 30 percent.

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Polls then show far-right AfD in second place with 20 percent, with their leader Alice Weidel, who had an online discussion with tech mogul Elon Musk earlier this week.

Weidel, however, does not have a realistic chance of becoming Germany’s next leader as other parties refuse to work with the AfD.

Olaf Scholz and his Social Democrats came in around 14-17 percent in the polls. Scholz leads a minority government after his three-party coalition – made up of the Social Democrats, the liberal FDP, and the Greens – collapsed in Novemberwhen he fired a key minister of the FDP, Christian Lindner, which Scholz said was a result of the minister “breaking his trust too many times.”