(Adnkronos) – Olaf Scholz rejects the proposal to double the defense budget. In an interview with “Stern”, the German Chancellor argues that significantly increasing defense spending “without saying what the money will be spent on and where it will come from” is a “half-wrong” idea. “Who will foot the bill? The citizens?”, asks Scholz, engaged in the election campaign ahead of the February 23 vote, commenting on a proposal by his deputy and economy minister Robert Habeck, the Green Party’s candidate for chancellor.
In an interview with Der Spiegel, Habeck urged Germany to increase its defense budget to 3.5% of GDP, almost double the 2% required by NATO. “We have to spend almost twice as much on our defense so that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not dare attack us,” said the deputy chancellor.
