Greece adopts ‘doubled’ defense budget

Greece adopts ‘doubled’ defense budget | Daily Tribune

Athens (AFP) — 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 said before the vote that they would approve 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 needs to explain on 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 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.

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.