The former government approved almost €5 billion in warships and missile defense deals as it prepared to leave office. New Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who was then finance minister, has also received criti-cism.Germany’s weapons exports reached a record level this year, thanks to the last-minute approval of deals worth nearly E5 billion ($5.6 billion) by then-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s administration.
The data, from the Economy Ministry, was re-quested by a lawmaker with the socialist Left party, and published by DPA news agency on Saturday.
The figures reveal that the agreements were signed off during Merkel’s last nine days in power.
The last-minute deals brought Germany’s total weapons exports to a record E9.04 billion for the whole of 2021, according to the ministry.
The previous record high for German arms ex-ports was E8.015 billion in 2019. Egypt is the main recipient of German arms, despite criticism over its human rights violations and involvement in con-flicts in Yemen and Libya.
Under the last-minute agreements, Thyssenk-rupp Marine Systems will deliver three warships to Egypt and a submarine to Singapore, while Diehl Defence will deliver 16 air defense systems to Egypt.
Details of the deals were released just a day be-fore Olaf Scholz was elected chancellor earlier this month, although the exports’ value was not known at the time.
The last-minute deals were approved despite the fact that the government was only acting in an ex-ecutive capacity, when major decisions are usually avoided.
Scholz was Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minis-ter in Merkel’s grand coalition between the conser-vative bloc and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and would have been privy to the deals.
Sevim Dagdelen, the socialist Left party’s for-eign policy expert, hit out at Scholz on Twitter, accusing him of acting like “a real crook.”
She called for the export of “murder tools” to be halted.
In a separate interview with DPA news agency, Dagdelen slammed his party’s criticism of arms sales to authoritarian regimes as inconsequential.
Germany’s new coalition of the SPD, climate-friendly Greens and neoliberal FDP has spoken out in favor of a restrictive arms export policy.
The coalition agreement stipulates that they plan to curb exports to countries outside of the EU and NATO.
Germany approved arms deals to the tune of 8 billion euros in 2019. The largest share of military exports went to Hungary, followed by Egypt and the United States.—AP
