Representatives of the SPD, FDP, Greens and Union negotiated again on Sunday evening about the Bundeswehr special fund. The politicians apparently agreed. But when the Federal Ministry of Finance published a corresponding paper, chaos broke out among the Greens.
Representatives of the SPD, FDP, Greens and Union met late on Sunday evening in the government quarter to negotiate again about the special fund. Among them were Federal Finance Minister Christian Lindner (FDP), Federal Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens), Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) and CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt.
After several hours, there is said to have been a consensus at around 10 p.m., with which all negotiators agreed. But the Greens were apparently by no means in agreement. As FOCUS Online learned from participants, the paper that informed about the “successfully ended” talks on the special fund was accidentally published by participants in the Federal Ministry of Finance (BMF) – whereupon chaos broke out among the Greens.
Actually, it is said, the Green Foreign Minister assured her negotiating partners that she was “handshake-proof”. After the Greens, FDP, SPD and Union agreed on a formulation for the special fund and a press release was pre-formulated, each side of the negotiation should have been given half an hour to bring their own people up to date. In this way, it should be avoided that the key functionaries of the parties find out about the news from the press.
But as FOCUS Online learned, Baerbock was not enough for 30 minutes. Five minutes before the end of the deadline, participants in the Green Party are said to have asked for more time to talk to their party. The problem: Participants of the BMF are said to have already sent a message at the moment, which informed about the agreement between the traffic light and the Union.
The corresponding paper is available to FOCUS Online. It says: “Together we will ensure that the Bundeswehr will be strengthened in the coming years with additional investments of 100 billion euros.” The so-called two percent target of NATO will be achieved on average over several years.
An initiative to accelerate procurement will be launched immediately and before the parliamentary summer recess. Necessary measures for cyber security, civil protection and the upgrading and stabilization of partners should therefore be financed from the federal budget.
For weeks there had been no agreement between the participants in the discussion. The main reason for this was the wording that was intended to determine what the 100 billion euros could be spent on.
While the Union insisted that the money could be spent on the “Bundeswehr” or alternatively on the “Armed Forces”, the Greens tried to extend the term to “alliance and defense”. Any measures such as cyber security should be financed with the help of the special fund.
The fact that the Foreign Minister and her people had to give in to the Union on a crucial point will not go down well with the Greens anyway. When the paper on the corresponding agreement was published before the final release, chaos is said to have finally broken out.
