European leaders have found a new buzzword: rearmament. Across the region, military budgets are growing, debt limits are fading away, and political priorities are being turned upside down. This comes amid a rapid downturn in relations between European states and the United States, where the new Trump administration has adopted a different strategy toward the war in Ukraine and significantly cooled its rapport with transatlantic allies.
Unprecedented sums are being funneled into arms procurement and military technologies, with debt brakes set to disappear basically overnight, even in the region’s most fiscally conservative countries. “We are in an era of rearmament,” declared European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during the unveiling of her new plan, ReArm Europe. “And Europe is ready to massively boost its defense spending.”
Reacting to Europe’s new military plans, Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen welcomed the initiative but warned that time is short. “So [we need to] rearm Europe: spend, spend, spend on defense and deterrence,” she urged ahead of a European Council meeting on Thursday.
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The EU plan will integrate different funding mechanisms, including national and union-wide budgets, loan instruments, and expanded collaboration with private capital. Combined, these could channel an additional €800 billion into so-called regional defense over the next four years. For context, in 2024, EU members allocated €326 billion to defense, already representing a 30% increase from 2021. But the most striking aspect of the plan is its proposal to relax fiscal deficit rules—rules that have enjoyed near-sacred status for the EU bureaucracy. In this regard, Frederiksen’s “spend, spend, spend” summarizes the shift with remarkable accuracy.
“Member states are ready to invest more in their own security if they have the fiscal space,” von der Leyen asserted. This is another astonishing statement, considering that these very fiscal rules have long been used to justify cuts to essential public services. It raises an obvious question: if governments are ready to spend more on the military when given the chance, could the same apply to healthcare and public transport—if the same flexibility was extended?
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Similar contradictions arise at the national level. In Germany, the (likely) incoming government—a coalition of the right-wing Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Social Democratic Party (SPD)—has announced it would ease the federal debt brake and create a multi-billion-euro special fund to bolster defense and infrastructure. The German debt brake has long functioned much like the EU’s fiscal rules, rigidly capping spending. Previous proposals to ease these restrictions were met with fierce opposition, including from the CDU itself.
“For years, they said there is no money for dilapidated schools and broken roads. But for armament, there is now a blank check. This is outrageous,” stated Jan van Aken of Die Linke. The left-wing party went further, calling the plan “a slap in the face for everyone struggling to keep up with rising rents and living costs.”
If there was ever doubt that pouring billions into armament would come at the expense of social rights, it has already vanished without a trace. In Britain, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s ministers have unveiled plans to cut welfare spending in response to what they describe as a radically transformed world.
“No doubt we’ll be told this is another ‘tough choice.’ Just like it was a tough choice to not lift children out of poverty,” wrote Jeremy Corbyn. “Isn’t it strange how the government only cites ‘difficult choices’ when they are harming the most vulnerable, but increasing defense spending is apparently an easy choice to make.”
Kevan Nelson of the Communist Party of Britain said, “Keir Starmer is attempting to ride two horses at once…yet neither NATO, some new European Military Alliance, nor a second Cold War against China, will meet the needs of millions of people for affordable housing and energy, decent pensions and benefits, a first-class NHS and secure and well-paid jobs.”
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Along the same lines, in a public address on Wednesday evening, French President Emmanuel Macron warned that the French should prepare for sacrifices to counter what he repeatedly described as “the Russian threat.” While he attempted to frame the production of arms and military goods as a potential driver of European reindustrialization, critics from France Unbowed argued that his speech was designed to instill fear and push through unpopular social policies.
Macron also made unsettling remarks regarding the potential use of France’s nuclear arsenal for regional deterrence. Rather than promoting de-escalation, his speech added to growing concerns about Europe’s increasingly aggressive position. Mathilde Panot of France Unbowed reaffirmed her party’s opposition to Macron’s principle of a war economy, warning that similar policies in other countries have led to increases in the retirement age and further worker exploitation, among other things. “We want an economy that serves peace,” Panot stated. “And the rich must contribute to it.”
Left parties and movements continue to argue that Europe’s security should not be measured by military strength. Instead, they call for genuine independence from the US and its imperialist agenda, alongside an economic model that prioritizes social justice over militarization.
