Tuesday, December 27, 2022

Rüdiger Lucassen, November 23, 2022, Defense Procurement

German Bundestag, Plenarprotokoll 20/69, p. 8092.

Frau President. Frau Defense Commissioner. Ladies and gentlemen.

Nine months Zeitenwende [change of times] Bundeswehr. Here, I want to open with a question: Where is it, the Zeitenwende of Chancellor Olaf Scholz? In the Defense Committee it so far has not arrived. The press in any case seeks it. It has not arrived in the industry and our soldiers after nine months have seen nothing of the Zeitenwende in their barracks.

            Marianne Schieder (SPD): That is not right! Go there for once!

Scholz’s Zeitenwende, there is none, and not after your just heard attempt at clarification, Frau Minister. The truth is: For defense of our country, the Federal government has made 100 billion euros in debts, yet it has done nothing to expend the money for our armed forces. What the Federal government is doing to the Bundeswehr is sabotage, sabotage by incompetence.   

Dear colleagues, what could a willing and competent Federal government do with all of 100 billion euros?  Much of the damage which was inflicted on the Bundeswehr in the last decades could thereby be repaired. This prospect of a material change in the Bundeswehr is besides why a majority voted for the special fund. Yet now it appears that 100 billion in debt money melts away like snow in the sun, and the reasons are all homemade.

First. By means of galloping inflation, the purchasing power of the special fund decreases in the coming five years to 69 billion. That means 31 billion in purchasing power has been burnt.

Second. The increased interest rates for the borrowed money in any case hits the special fund full in the account. In the six months of this year alone, 308 million euros therein goes just for interest. For this sum, the Defense Ministry could buy 20 new armored howitzers. Yet the Defense Ministry buys no armored howitzers, exactly as few heavy transport helicopters, Boxers for the medium forces, or the enormously important air defense.

            Andreas Schwarz (SPD): Nevertheless, everything runs!

Instead, the Defense Ministry pays interest. With interest, our soldiers cannot fight.

State Secretary Möller drew our attention in a friendly way to the third point in the last committee meeting: The weakness of the euro. Every arms purchase in the U.S.A., like the purchase of the F-35 or the heavy transport helicopters, will obviously be figured in U.S. dollars. As a result of the weak euro, there is ever less armament for the money in the U.S.A. Your catastrophic financial policy not only weakens our prosperity but also our defense readiness.

The fourth and last reason for the melting of the special fund is the totally overcharged procurement system of the Bundeswehr. All of the Defense Ministers of the last nine years attempted a reform, all have failed. Frau Lambrecht herself has given up the attempt of a reform.

            Andreas Schwarz (SPD): Which nevertheless runs fine!

What the Federal government does with the special fund is a money demolition. And the Bundeswehr in the future will not be defense ready.

Ladies and gentlemen, the situation is off track, for every defense politician, regardless of which party. I say to you what I would do in this situation. I would set clear priorities and order weapons and munitions and indeed do it quickly. The German defense industry can deliver. It only waits on orders. I would run the risk of setting aside the procurement law, motivate the Armaments Office and let the complaints come [Ich würde ins Risiko gehen, mich über das Vergaberecht hinwegsetzen, dem Rüstungsamt Beine machen, es auf Klagen ankommen lassen]. Authentic political leadership presupposes the will to implement. It means having in view the welfare of the Bundeswehr and of our Federal Republic and taking personal responsibility for decisions in an emergency.

Thank you.

 

[trans: tem]