According to reports, the German government may divert green agenda subsidies that are aimed at cutting coal power for the defense industry to increase arms production during the conflict in Ukraine.
A report from Bloomberg claims that the federal government in Berlin is conducting confidential conversations with regional state governments to direct green subsidies to produce more weapons and ammunition and thereby create more jobs in areas of the country impacted by the attempted move away from coal.
A source who was familiar with plans said that Rheinmetall AG, a German defense contractor, is looking to construct a factory in Saxony to make basic ammunition components. This state is one of the most important hubs in the country’s coal industry.
The defence firm is also planning on investing over €10 million into a production line near Hamburg to produce ammunition for the 30 Gepard anti-aircraft guns that Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government has committed to sending to Ukraine following Russia’s full-scalle invasion in February 2022.
The economic powerhouse of Europe has long suffered from out of date and often dilapidated military equipment, with the government of former leader Angela Merkel consistently failing to spend the bare minimum on defence spending to meet its obligations to the American-led NATO alliance — a fact that was frequently criticised by former President Donald Trump.
German Military Leaves with ‘Bare’ Armory As Country Sends Weapons to Ukraine, Army Chief Warnshttps://t.co/6I1DU8r63v
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) January 26, 2023
Days after Russian forces launched an invasion of Ukraine last February, the recently formed coalition government under Social Democrat politician Olaf Scholz announced that the country would commit 100 billion euros (£90/$109 billion) to revamp its military and finally meet the 2 per cent of GDP NATO spending requirement after years of delinquency.
Despite this spending commitment from the government, the volume of the shipments of munitions and weapons to Ukraine has essentially left Germany’s military stockpiles “bare“, according to the chief of Germany’s army.
Following the decision last month to finally send some of the nation’s Leopard 2 battle tanks to Ukraine, Lieutenant General Alfons Mais warned there “comes a point where we can no longer do our jobs,”Referring to the reduced capacity of the German Army.
Germany Brings Back Vintage Armoured Vehicles After New Replacements Suffer Mass Break Down https://t.co/GSIfg5jaCA
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) December 19, 2022
The failure to adequately provide for the military of Ukraine by the German government has been exposed. It also exposes the flaws in their leftist green agenda.
After the Russian invasion, and subsequent Western sanctions against Moscow, flow of Russian gas via pipelines to Germany stopped abruptly. The country was forced to both delay the closure of three of its nuclear power plants that were scheduled to close down, as well as to ramp up the production of coal to stop the country’s freezing.
In stark contrast to the country’s oft-touted green credentials, an additional 164 million tonnes of extra carbon dioxide was pumped into the atmosphere as a result of the increased use of coal last year, even when taking into account the government’s plan to move up its planned goal of banning the energy source by the year 2030 in order to offset current usage.
Trump’s criticisms about the European Union’s green policies and dependence on Russia for energy were proven to be correct this year. These are both devastating leadership mistakes that have been made since the War in Ukraine. https://t.co/IF2i2mPPG5
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) January 2, 2023
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