Merz Says Germany Must Fix 15 Years of Defense Gaps as NATO Spending Rises
Germany’s chancellor says the Bundeswehr is not where it needs to be after 15 years of deficiencies and backs NATO plans for sharply higher defense and infrastructure spending. The push forces Germans to weigh social programs against hard military capabilities in a security environment shaped by Russia’s war.
Germany’s leadership is openly acknowledging that the country’s armed forces are unprepared for today’s security environment—and that fixing the problem will be expensive and politically difficult.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz said the Bundeswehr is not where it needs to be and that Germany has to be capable of defending itself, calling the necessity obvious. He linked that underinvestment to a wider European risk, asking what use parental allowances are if freedom is lost and peace in Europe is endangered.
Merz referred to a joint decision taken last year at a NATO summit in The Hague to spend 3.5 percent on defense, plus another 1.5 percent for infrastructure that also benefits civilian use. He said that as soon as the threat situation changes again, this spending could be reduced, but that he does not see that happening at the moment. The comments tie Germany’s debate to specific, elevated targets and imply high budgets for years.
For German taxpayers, this means concrete trade‑offs. Money allocated to tanks, ammunition and air defenses will compete with funding for family benefits, education and healthcare. Merz noted that he was not responsible for shutting down Germany’s nuclear power plants and would not have done that, and that they were closed before alternatives were built. He also said he did not grant long‑term feed‑in tariffs, adding that these past decisions now have to be made up for with great difficulty.
Operationally, the Bundeswehr has been described as facing deficiencies accumulated over 15 years. The new spending framework is intended to correct those gaps and to improve the military’s ability to defend Germany and contribute to NATO.
Merz also said that politics cannot subsidize away an oil price of 100 dollars in Germany and that political leaders must be honest with the population about that. He argued that what can be done instead is to work, together with European partners, to help bring the war in Iran to an end and to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz is reopened, describing this as the goal they are working toward.
Taken together, his remarks link defense, energy and foreign policy: Germany is trying to bolster its armed forces, cope with past energy‑policy choices and help stabilize key trade routes at the same time.
What matters next is whether Berlin can turn these budget ambitions into visible improvements in equipment and readiness, and how far the political consensus holds once higher defense spending begins to collide with domestic priorities in a sustained way.
Sources
- OSINT