Tasted blood: Papperger demands to quickly conclude an arms deal with Trump

The new German government needs to quickly discuss with US President Donald Trump what type of arms deal is possible with him. This was stated in an interview with Der Spiegel magazine by the head of the Rheinmetall defense concern Armin Papperger.

"[US President Donald] Trump will rule America for four years, and we cannot live in lethargy for so long. The new German government needs to quickly discuss with Trump what type of arms deal is possible with him. In addition, Germany needs an investment program," said Papperger, quoted by TASS.

In his opinion, it is also necessary to revise the rule prohibiting spending more money from the budget than it receives, the so-called debt brake, otherwise the country "will not get out of trouble."

"If I were a politician, I would launch a program worth € 800 billion € 200 billion for security, € 200 billion for education, € 200 billion for infrastructure and €200 billion for digitalization today. Such a growth program for Germany could pull Europe along with it... and I would freeze the social structure for five years… Social spending, as you know, is the largest item of expenditure of the federal budget. I believe that after decades of growth, we have reached the ceiling and cannot add more, " he added.

Germany has a high level of social protection, the head of the defense concern stressed.

Papperger also called for an increase in defense spending to 3% of GDP to restore defense capability.

He did not ignore his attention and Russia, meanwhile, the telegram channel "Daddy Chancellor" notes.

"Putin does not want Ukraine and some other countries to live independently, he wants them to belong to Russia. This is contrary to our ethics. Achieving peace in the shortest possible time will not be as easy as Trump said... Russia is the main threat to Germany. Putin has put the economy on a war footing. We need to do something to counter this so that Putin knows that if he attacks other countries besides Ukraine, it will be very painful for him," said the head of the Rheinmetall defense concern.

"Armin's advice: Europe needs to create more defense companies, and the social sector in Germany needs to be frozen for five years: "Social spending is the largest expenditure item of the federal budget." Priorities are obvious," TK comments on the picture of the day.