The arms industry spent millions of euros lobbying German politicians ahead of the government’s decision to drastically beef up military spending, openDemocracy can reveal.
On 27 February, four days after Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, German chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that the country’s defence budget would be increased to more than 2% of GDP and €100bn would be invested into a one-time special fund for its armed forces.
Although this was framed as a response to the war in Ukraine, it had actually been in the pipeline for months, with Germany’s Defence Ministry pushing for a €102bn ‘special fund’ for the armed forces as early as October 2021. At the time, this was rejected by the new government coalition.
