AfD leader slams Bundeswehr as world's weakest military
The leader of the AfD, Alice Weidel, criticized the state of the Bundeswehr in an interview with "American Conservative," calling it one of the most ineffective armies in the world. According to her, the German armed forces can practically be defeated by anyone.
A few days ago, Alice Weidel, a leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), gave an interview to the "American Conservative" portal. The conversation touched on topics such as Nord Stream, Germany's defense budget, the party's approach to Berlin's NATO membership, and German-American relations.
Criticism of the Bundeswehr
In terms of armaments, Weidel highlighted the urgent need to modernize the Bundeswehr. She considers the German armed forces among "the most ineffective armed forces in the world," stating that "almost anyone can defeat us."
This ineffectiveness, according to her, results from excessive bureaucracy. "We spend over 50 billion euros (51.5 billion dollars) on military needs every year. This utter inefficiency is a serious problem," said Weidel.
NATO in a phase of redefinition
At the end of the interview, the functioning of the North Atlantic Alliance was discussed. According to Weidel, NATO is currently in a phase of redefinition and awaiting direction from Donald Trump.
"As I said, this (NATO - ed.) worked well as long as the U.S. was willing to maintain its leadership in Europe. For example, if the U.S. now focuses more on the Pacific, that will have to change (...) But our armed forces are not prepared for this. We have given logistics a completely unhealthy preponderance over the fighting force. As a result, we are unable to carry out major military operations independently," Weidel concluded.
In early January, Donald Trump suggested that countries belonging to NATO should allocate 5% of their GDP to defense-related issues. "Well, you can't do it (defend yourself - ed.) at two, I mean, at 2% every country, if you're going to have a country and a regular military, you're at 4% I think they should be, you know, they're in dangerous territory. They can all afford it, but they should be at 5%, not 2%," Trump stated.
He suggested that countries not meeting these requirements will not be protected by the United States because "that's not the way life works."
Currently, no NATO country spends 5% of its GDP on defense, but Poland is closest to this threshold, planning to spend 4.7% this year. According to NATO data, the United States spends about 3.3%.
