65% of Germans agree with Defense Minister’s plans to raise defense budget to 3-3.5% of GDP, according to recent polls, including 15% who think that is too low

https://i.redd.it/t6l1w79tkg0e1.png

by Straight_Ad2258

38 comments

  2. the 15% Gigachads who think 3.5% of GDP defense spending is too low 🙂

  3. After two horrific world wars pacifism was engrained into their culture. This is about to be phased out. With the end of the current coalition, the end of pacifism ends as well for Germany.

  4. > including 15% who think that is too low

    including? I would interpret the graphic that those 15% are on top of that 50%

  6. previous surveys done by ARD showed also high support for rearming

    75% of Germans support more defense spending

    even 68% of AfD voters and half of BSW voters agreed to it

    [https://www.infratest-dimap.de/umfragen-analysen/bundesweit/ard-deutschlandtrend/2024/maerz/](https://www.infratest-dimap.de/umfragen-analysen/bundesweit/ard-deutschlandtrend/2024/maerz/)

    i think that it helps that Bundeswehr is widely seen as a joke in Germany , and a sign of German state underinvestment and incompetence, so everyone knows that it is in bad shape

    but the idea of compulsory military service seems dumb and it would cost us more money in wasted time of prime-working age men than it would be worth it

    also, i don’t get why in the age of high-tech armies, we don’t explicitly strive to have as much automation as possible on the battlefield

    i remember Ukrainians were praising the Caesar exactly because it needed fewer people to operate than conventional SPGs , and thus with the same number of troops more firepower can be operated

    we’ve also seen that 150 dollars drones and a grenade can be enough to **finish soldiers and vehicles. and the most expensive part of the tank is not the tank itself , but the crew insid**e

    automation is the future of warfare , even US Marine has purchased autonomous armored vehicles from Rheinmetall recently ,why not make it the standard?

    [https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/media/news-watch/news/2024/03/2024-03-08-rheinmetall-mission-master-ugv-for-demo-of-us-marine-corps](https://www.rheinmetall.com/en/media/news-watch/news/2024/03/2024-03-08-rheinmetall-mission-master-ugv-for-demo-of-us-marine-corps)

    why focus on increasing the number of soldiers, instead of making your army so high tech that you could operate the same number of armored vehicles and artillery systems with 1/3 of the number of personnel Russia needs?

    each soldier life lost in a war would cost Germany around 1 million euro, those are expensive losses

  7. Probably no one in this survey has actually an idea how much money this is. A pointless survey. “Should we spend more on defense?” would have been a better question

  8. 3.5% is a lot, but its ok

    However we should not fall into the fallacy of more is always better, there is such a thing as too much défense spending, which also, doesn’t improve the capacities that much

  10. Reform your procurement process and you’ll do much, much better.

  11. A little tip from Finland. War stuff is very cheap during peaceful times. We were buying top equipment for Temu-prices a while back.

  13. Tjoar, da iss sie ja: Die Mehrheit zum Abschaffen der Schuldenbremse.

  16. I agree with a lot of what your saying. But in contrast I judge that the Ukraine war is a prime example of why we DO need strong reserves and manpower.

    Even though Ukraine is demonstrating a high degree of innovation, it still needs personell to man post and regenerate forces. This is a task, that no professional army can accomplish without the support of the entire population. This is why the population should be prepared for such events. And contrary to what some completely clueless German politicians often say: the vast mayoralty of military posts can be effectively taught to a reservist in 12-18 months. Sure there are increasingly more advanced jobs especially due to more automation, but quantitatively most of what’s needed isn’t in that area. Its people who drive logistics-trucks, who man supply post, who clear obstacles and prepare and man positions and so on.

  18. a) We have a budget crisis and a massive investment backlog in transportation, infrastructure, healthcare, education … We honestly don’t have the money to go to 3%. That’d be around $150 bn., which would be over twice as much as the UK or France are spending right now.

    b) I know r/europe has been clamouring for ever higher defence spending since 2022, with everyone trying to outdo the next person in calling for even higher shares of GDP (why not 4% like Poland? Why not 5%?!), but a steady annual 2% would already solve a lot of issues Germany has with its armed forces.

    We’ve seen record investment over the past two years with hundreds of heavy weapons systems acquired or earmarked, with 35 F-35s, further Eurofighters, over 100 new Leopard 2 A8 MBTs, hundreds of wheeled and tracked APCs and IFVs, over €20 bn. to be spend on artillery ammunition (far more than any other European countries), more submarines, frigates, helicopters …

    Germany’s defence spending kept hovering between 1.1% and 1.3% in the decade leading up to 2022, just hitting and staying at 2% would be more than enough to get the German military up to scratch. I know this isn’t a popular opinion around these parts, but 3 or even 3.5% would be a waste of money.

    Edit: There are already people in this comment section asking for a ‘minimum’ of 6-7%, and one person calling for 15%. Lol. That’d be 2/3 of the US defence budget – while the US has a $ 27 tr. economy, and Germany has a $4.5 tr. one.

  19. As a Pole, I respect these 65% AF! Germany, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Baltics, Romania – these are our real allies, not the USA. I do not have any anti-American sentiment, I am just a realist and pro-European.

  20. Now ask the same question but including that it means extremely needed investitions in infrastructure aren’t done, and budget cuts will destroy our social safety net and with that the societal cohesion.

    At least thats the plan with Merz and the CDU/CSU/FDP and their ideological madness.

  21. Yeah I can tell you that people agree as long as there are no cuts somewhere else

  22. If you knew that your country would be in a war within 5 years, would 3.5% of GDP spent to prepare for it still feel like it’s enough? Because indeed I don’t think this is enough. With current level of support Ukraine receives it will fall within a year from now. And the EU is going to be next in line, probably starting with Baltics. And with Trump at helm USA won’t move a finger for the EU or any other NATO partners.

  24. Let’s hope FDP won’t reach 5% (i doubt it tbh) on the 23rd February

  25. With Trump we have no other option than raising our military budget.

  26. 3,5% would put Germany squarely as the third biggest defense spender globally after the USA and China (3% would even be enough for that)

  27. Now ask the same people where the money should come from… more debt? No. Less spending on social security? No. Less spending on infrastructure? Definitely not.

    It’s easy to agree on more funding if you don’t have to answer where it is supposed to be coming from…

  28. Will you finally abolish the Schwarze Null? Speaking as someone who mostly knows economics from Keynesian and related sources, I cannot understand why Germany cares so much about a balanced budget.

  29. I don’t think a poll on whether it is too high, too low or just right makes sense, considering that the vast majority answering will have no grasp of what 1, 2, 3,…% spending will look like effectively, nor how it will be used. Underfunding might be part of the problem, sure, but the way funding is used is at least as big of an issue

  30. C’mon Mr Sanchez, pay attention to your colleague Mr. Borrell

  32. Keepong in mind Germany Massive economy

    3.5% is more than enough

  34. Oh look! Another poll!
    Has to be very accurate, right! 😀

  35. This is a flawed poll.
    Ask those 65% of germans which social benefits they would sacrifice, or how much more taxes they would want to pay, and the result would be different

  36. If we buy exclusively German, I am fine with that. If we buy American arms this is out of the question

  37. Recent study reveals: 65% of Germans have no clue how much 3% of Germany’s GDP are. Only 3% to admit they don’t know.

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