Zeitenwende speech
Scholz described the attack as a "historic turning point" (German: Zeitenwende, literally: "times-turn," referring to the change from one age or era to another) and announced that in response his government would use a €100 billion off-budget fund to significantly increase military spending, reversing Germany's previously cautious defence policy.
He announced a fundamental restructuring of the country's cautious defence policy: Scholz vowed to set up an extraordinary fund of €100 billion to be invested in the modernisation of the German armed forces, the Bundeswehr.
[7] He also promised that defence spending would exceed 2% of gross domestic product (GDP), a requirement of NATO membership that Scholz's Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) had traditionally opposed.
[11] In addition to increases in German budgetary allotments for defence spending to achieve the 2% of GDP target mentioned in Scholz' speech, by September 2022, Germany had sent "30 Gepard anti-aircraft tanks, 10 Panzerhaubitze 2000 howitzers and three MARS multiple rocket launchers, as well as various lighter weapons," to support Ukraine.
However, the government continued to delay the provision of heavy weapons, resisting opposition pressure to provide German-made Leopard battle tanks and Marder infantry fighting vehicles.
[11] On 5 January 2023, Scholz partially reversed this policy: he issued a joint press release with Joe Biden, the President of the United States, announcing that their countries would supply Ukraine with Marders and Bradley Fighting Vehicles respectively.
Scholz also committed to sending a Patriot air defence system as a reaction to Russia's continued attacks on Ukraine's critical infrastructure.
Friedrich Merz, the leader of the opposition Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU), vowed to support Scholz's defence agenda,[14] while he characterised the previous attitude of the chancellor's party as pro-Russian.
The party's chairwoman Amira Mohamed Ali accused the chancellor of engaging in an arms race that would prove detrimental to international security.
Alice Weidel of AfD contradicted Scholz and asserted that NATO had committed an "historic mistake" in "aggrieving Russia" by entertaining the possibility of Ukrainian membership.
[11] Writing for The Guardian, Patrick Wintour described Scholz's proposals as a "180-degree course correction" and wrote that Germany had become "not just an economic but also a geopolitical powerhouse" overnight.
It also linked Scholz's new defence agenda to a new energy policy that could see Germany become less dependent on Russian gas, a scenario it described as "one of Vladimir Putin's biggest [potential] regrets".
[22] Although Germany had managed to avoid broad deindustrialization, energy-intensive industry, especially plants directly dependent on natural gas for as a source of heat or feedstock, had partially fled the country.
