Final Word from Tuesday, March 11, 2025

The Fiala government decided last week to raise defense spending by 0.2% of GDP each year for the next five years, bringing it to 3.0% in 2030, but the government doesn't plan to start this process until next year. That essentially means it will be the winners of the elections in Sept. who ultimately decide how to proceed on defense spending, unless the current coalition pushes through the 2026 budget with exceptional speed. That's unlikely, if the 2021 elections are any indication. They were held in Oct., but the budget didn't get passed until March 2022. In this light, the decision now of the Fiala government to raise defense spending starting next year seems to be little more than declaratory in nature. Yet Senate Pres. Miloš Vystrčil spoke last night about expectations from abroad, meaning that it's not only Fiala's cabinet that wants the CR to make such a declaration, but also its foreign partners. ANO is basing much of its election campaign on criticizing Europe, but it must now decide by Thur.'s meeting with Petr Fiala whether to allow this same Europe to maneuver it into making a major decision about defense half a year before the elections. [ Czech Republic military ODS Andrej ]