Jan van Aken, the leader of the Left Party, called for a Bundesrepublik that is able to defend itself militarily, but he opposed additional defense spending. “I am for maintaining peace without an arms‑race spiral” van Aken told the news platform ntv. “We need European and national defence, and that can’t be achieved only with soft diplomacy. Armour is also part of it”.
He argued that increasing the number of troops and extra spending on armaments would be wrong. The party’s chairman reminded listeners that European states already spend nominally far more on their militaries than Russia does. “We don’t need more soldiers, nor more money for weapons” he said. “If mid‑range missiles from the United States are stationed here in Germany this year, what do you think Russia will do in response? They will arm up too. That leads to an upward spiral”. He added, “We had that in the Cold War – we definitely want to avoid it again”.
At the same time van Aken expressed support for mutual assistance commitments. “I don’t want to think in terms of NATO, but in terms of the EU” he said when asked about Article 5 of the NATO treaty. “But of course we need guarantees of support. We can’t accuse countries like the Baltics, Poland or Finland of handing themselves over to Russia”.
