"Politics is needed in order to make decisions and necessary conclusions. We have done this together with our coalition partners in the sense that we will increase the defense budget by 5.3 billion euros in the next four years," the chancellor told journalists.
Defense Minister Klaudia Tanner said the funds would be directed primarily to procuring modern equipment and weapons. She said that this would mark "the end of a decade of deprivation" for the Austrian armed forces, vowing that the country will not buy anything that would not be "extremely necessary."
The defense budget in 2023 will grow by 680 million euros or 0.7% of GDP, from the current 2.7 billion to 3.38 billion euros. In March, however, the government promised to raise defense spending next year up to 1% of GDP, or 4.68 billion euros.
"We promised to give more, and now it's [defense spending] growing. This is a fact," Nehammer said, answering the question why the increase in defense spending does not correspond to the extent promised in March.
Currently, Austria's defense spending is planned to reach 1% of GDP only in 2026 and total 4.7 billion euros.