The Bundesrat votes in favor of the amendment to the Basic Law to upgrade the Bundeswehr - despite four countries abstaining. In the federal states, the Left Party is involved in the governments and sees the need for 100 billion euros elsewhere.
Berlin, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Bremen and Thuringia have abstained from voting in the Bundesrat on the amendment to the Basic Law to upgrade the Bundeswehr, which will cost billions. The left is part of the government in the four federal states. "The additional expenditure that has now been decided to upgrade the Bundeswehr will neither end the dying in Ukraine nor will it ensure a more peaceful and safer world in the future," said the chairmen of the party's state associations in a joint statement.
The left has assumed government responsibility in the four countries in order to develop them in a socially just and economically sustainable manner. The party leaders described the fight against climate change and its effects as an urgent task of the present. For an ecological and affordable energy supply, quick decisions are necessary. "We are convinced that an upgrade of the Bundeswehr is expressly opposed to this, especially since the Bundeswehr will not solve its procurement and structural problems with this sum."
It is tragic that the SPD, Greens, FDP and CDU are not prepared to invest at least the same amount in better healthcare, education, affordable housing, climate protection and the energy transition. The sum of 100 billion euros could be decisive for the urgently needed expansion of renewable energies and a social energy transition.
The Federal Council had decided on the necessary amendment to the Basic Law, which would allow borrowing of 100 billion euros to bypass the debt brake in order to better equip the armed forces. The necessary two-thirds majority was obtained in the state chamber.
