German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said that Germany must continue making further investments in security despite intense pressure to make cuts in difficult negotiations over the 2025 budget.
Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business liberal Free Democrats (FDP) has demanded that the coalition government stick with strict rules against budget deficits, known as the debt brake.
But Baerbock on Monday argued that Germany must take a leading role addressing the serious threats to European peace and security, even if that means taking on debt.
"It would be more than fatal if we had to say in a few years' time: We have saved the debt brake but lost our peaceful European order," Baerbock, a Green, warned at an event organized by the Federal Academy for Security Policy in Berlin.
"That will be the question our children will be asking us in a few years' time," Baerbock added.
Baerbock said she was irritated by discussions "where support for Ukraine is treated like a charity gesture and not as what it actually is - an investment in [Germany's] own national security," she said.
She added: "There can't really be a greater national interest."
Baerbock criticized a public discourse in Germany where many people seem to welcome additional security - but have no interest in paying the cost.
