Griechenland verabschiedet einen Haushalt, der die Verteidigungsausgaben fast verdoppelt

Greece will almost double its defense spending after parliament approved the 2025 state budget Sunday with a roll-call vote, traditionally regarded as a vote of confidence in the government. With 159 out of a total of 299 votes cast, the State budget for the fiscal year 2025 was ratified while the defense expenditure was approved by a larger majority. Spending for the defense ministry will rise to 6.1 billion euros ($6.5 billion) from 3.6 billion euros, due to the increase in equipment deliveries in 2025.

“Compared to 2019, by 2025, spending on health will have increased by 74 percent and spending on defense by 73 percent, underlining the government’s priorities,” Minister of Economy and Finance **Kostis Hatzidakis** had said late November on submitting the budget to parliament. Major opposition parties, PASOK and SYRIZA, as well as the Hellenic Solution party, had agreed that they would support the goverment in approving the increased defense spending.

**Nikos Dendias**, the defense minister, told parliament Saturday that the spending is essential because of the challenges the country faces, especially from historic rival Turkey. “Is this spending too much? Whoever is positioning themselves on this topic, needs to explain what criteria they are considering. Is the country threatened? And where is the main threat to the country coming from?” he said, noting that Turkey spends 26.8 billion euros ($28 billion) on armaments.

Greece spends around three percent of its annual economic output on defense, higher than most EU states, mainly because of long-running tension with Turkey. Greek armed forces had a 20-billion-euro shortfall during the country’s decade-long debt crisis, Dendias said in November, when he announced a shake up of defense forces to sideline older weapons in favor of drones after lessons drawn from Ukraine’s war against Russia.

# Defense Dome

Among the main changes in the radical overhaul is the creation of an anti-air and anti-drone defense dome covering the whole of Greece.

“Greece today is charting its own roadmap in terms of stability and growth in an international environment of instability,” Prime Minister **Kyriakos Mitsotakis** said Sunday, hailing the backing of opposition groups. Mitsotakis drew a parallel with the difficulties the governments of “big countries” such as France and Germany in particular and also Italy were now facing in seeking majority support for their own budgets amid political or economic turmoil.

The Greek prime minister also announced five measures to rectify the operation of banks for the benefit of citizens.

Among them are the end of charges for many banking transactions, including bill payments, as well as the contribution of 100 million euros ($105 million) to a program for the construction of new schools by the four largest Greek banks. Hatzidakis said during his closing speech on Sunday that what the government is seeking is “to have a healthy banking system on the one hand and on the other hand a banking system that actually works for the economy and society – without making citizens feel excluded from it, or more importantly, victims of it.”

Greece’s financial crisis saw an EU bailout conditional on severe austerity measures and structural reforms and policies, with Hatzidakis saying Greek citizens paid for the survival of the banks out of their pockets.

For anyone wondering:

We still have G3 as our assault rifles, many of our tanks are leopard 1, we are scheduled to receive new (and famously expensive) f35 and we need the upkeep, there talks for new linx troop transports, there is the ongoing need to modernise the navy. So yeah, we have a lot of catching up to do a defense spending is a rare instance where most major parties agree needs more attention.

Military industrial complex is a alive and well around the world.Just imagine if every country stop funding their army for a decade the amount of improvements the country can make like healthcare,infrastructure,schools,etc.

All of Europe should arm up at this point.

Good! Hopefully Greece joins a program like CV90 or Leopard2A8 to help faciliate expansion of production facilities. Greece has the 2nd largest tank forces in Europe, but also very outdated. An order of several thousand eqiupment over the next 10 years will likely be drawn up.

Modernize everything and get some local factories setup as well.

I guess they are worried about an attack from the Phoenicians.