BERLIN –
The budget battle within Germany’s governing coalition is jeopardizing its plan to meet defense obligations to Western allies, even as tensions with Russia rise and NATO skeptic Donald Trump runs for a second term as US president.
Since the 1990s, Germany has shed its aversion to post-World War II military action. But the country has faced criticism – not least from Trump during his first term – for repeatedly missing NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of its economic output on defense.
Days after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Chancellor Olaf Scholz surprised his allies with a “zeetenwende” – German for a historic turning point – with a special fund of 100 billion euros to bring the army back up to speed.
