Russian aggression and US isolationism push a once hesitant Germany to invest heavily in defence.

Germany’s military, the Bundeswehr, recently got the all-clear for a massive increase in investment after parliament voted to exempt defence spending from strict rules on debt.

The country’s top general has told the BBC the cash boost is urgently needed because he believes Russian aggression won’t stop at Ukraine.

“We are threatened by Russia. We are threatened by Putin. We have to do whatever is needed to deter that,” Gen Carsten Breuer says. He warns that Nato should be braced for a possible attack in as little as four years.

“It’s not about how much time I need, it’s much more about how much time Putin gives us to be prepared,” the defence chief says bluntly. “And the sooner we are prepared the better.”

  • 🦄🦄🦄@feddit.orgEnglish
    921·
    3 days ago

    With the Putin-loving, fascist AfD as the second strongest party in the country? We will see, but I do not have high hopes.

    • archonet@lemy.lolEnglish
      572·
      3 days ago

      I’d like to believe they’ll kick the Nazis out of the bar before they reach the levers of true power, but I’m American and you see how well having that naive hope went for us.

      Having said that, I imagine the Germans are at least slightly more cognizant of the risks involved than we are. Difference between “It can’t happen here!” and “It has already happened here and it was bad.”

      • 🦄🦄🦄@feddit.orgEnglish
        311·
        3 days ago

        Having said that, I imagine the Germans are at least slightly more cognizant of the risks involved than we are.

        Yeah one would think so, huh? But nope, right now nothing points to that. The last government declined to start the banning process against the AfD even tho the chances of success would have been really high. And that was a coalition of basically the labor party (as far as they think of themselves at least), the greens and some neo-lib shitheads. With the conservative government of right now? Lmao fat chance.

    • Djehngo@lemmy.worldEnglish
      16·
      3 days ago

      So my understanding is that they are the second strongest, but still at around 20% the other German parties formed a coalition that froze Afd out of power. So they are still a threat in future elections, but they have limited impact on policy for now.

      Is that correct or have I got the wrong idea?

      • iLStrix@lemmy.worldEnglish
        42·
        3 days ago

        Yes and no. In general you are right, but there are municipalities in East Germany that had over 50% of the votes go to the AfD… which is still absolutely insane to me. I’m sure it’s the same in the USA, but cities tend to lean more left and rural regions tend to heavily favor the AfD (or slightly less/more right parties).

    • takeda@lemm.eeEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Fuck trump, he made world less safe in so many ways and now in addition to threatening Canada and Greenland he appears to be planning to stay a war with Iran.

      And get this, the excuse is because they don’t want to negotiate suspending their nuclear program after he broke previous agreement.