Lars Klingbeil in Lithuania: Message from the Federal Minister

And that is now in every textbook? Lars Klingbeil looks amazed. The finance minister has General Christoph Huber explained the importance of the Bundeswehr “Panzerbrigade 45” for Lithuania, the stationation of which is actually a school material for many tenth graders. The troop is not yet active, is under construction. But expectations are great – also to Klingbeil.

The Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister is on a short visit to Lithuania, almost 24 hours. Bilateral conversations, plus a visit to the troop. One only wonders: Why? Were Chancellor, Minister of Defense and Federal President on site recently? What does Klingbeil want here – and why right now?

After all, many construction sites are opening up in front of the party leader Vice-Chancellor Minister in Berlin. The smoldering judge dispute, the ominous US tariffs, the increasing suffering in Gaza. Now the coalition treasurer has submitted its budget draft for 2026 and financial planning by 2029, including enormous billions of billions, which must close black and red. Klingbeil leaves no doubt in Lithuania what he is now expecting from cabinet colleagues.

In this unsubsumed mix of crises and conflicts, timing and occasion for the Lithuanian visit are not immediately open. It is a solidarity address of Klingbeil, which it is about to Lithuania for his fourth trip in the new office, but also a matter close to the heart for the soldier’s son from Munster.

At the same time, Klingbeil seems to be located to be captured in beautiful pictures. The Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister also has an eye on the Bundeswehr and Security in Europe. As a kind of Federal Minister that takes care of.

After the short visit to the “Panzerbrigade 45” staff office – an unspectacular office floor in Vilnius’ city center – for Klingbeil, Rukla is almost one and a half hours away. To the impressive pictures.

Klingbeil walks past fighting armor, transport vehicles and soldiers who explain to the Minister what “Puma”, “Boxer” or “Dingo” can do. Around 1400 German soldiers are stationed here, at the base of the multinational NATO BATTLEGROUC. Klingbeil thanks for use and emphasizes that he wants to set a “clear signal” for the Bundeswehr. Meant: the increase in defense spending.

There had been doubts about Germany’s commitment to the alliance defense in recent years, and they were often criticized as inadequate. Baltic counterparts are also satisfied accordingly. After a working meeting in the morning, Lithuania’s finance minister Rimantas Sadzius praised the “comprehensive steps”, which now also goes to Germany.

Lithuania itself spends four percent of the GDP for defense, planning another growth in the coming year, Estonia and Latvia have also embarked on this path. Klingbeil emphasizes that the security of the Baltic states is also “our security”. Germany wants to do justice to its responsibility in Europe, the German budget planning is an expression of this.

Strictly speaking, Klingbeil has nothing to be new for his hosts, nevertheless the souped -up federal budget is a message in itself. German defense spending are largely freed from the debt rules, from then on only a base of the expenditure is not financed by loans. As early as 2026, 97.4 billion euros are to be spent on defense and by 2029 even NATO’s 3.5 percent goal is to be reached.

However, it squeaking tremendously elsewhere in the state treasury. Almost 172 billion euros are missing in financial planning by 2029, and 34.3 billion euros will have to be scratched in the next year. How? Still unclear. Klingbeil wants to have his plans decide by the cabinet on Wednesday. There he should also place a drastic savings appeal. He already presented in Vilnius.

The budget for 2027 will be an “enormous challenge” for the government and will “demand” a little “, he warns in the presence of his Baltic counterparts. The finance minister demands that everyone should move. “This starts immediately that everyone goes into the criticism of task and see where can be saved in the ministries.”

This should become a tangible test for the coalition, not least for Klingbeil’s authority as Vice Chancellor and Finance Minister. Union and the SPD had previously been crossed for a cross due to far -threshold. For example, because of the electricity tax reduction, which should not be used for private households. Or the postponed Karlsruhe judge election, in which the coalitioners have literally tied up. And there is another unemployment.

Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche demands a longer working life – a red cloth for the Social Democrats. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann speaks with a view to the citizens’ allowance of an autumn “who washed”.

As a SPD party leader, Klingbeil also has to keep his people happy, can hardly leave these provocations without word. In any case, they have not missed him: he was able to dismiss the Reich advance on the TV interview with RTL/NTV in Vilnius as a “slap in the face for many”. The tense situation in Berlin should not calm this little.

Especially since there are painful US tariffs of 15 percent. A trade war may have been averted with the deal between the USA and the EU. Nevertheless, Klingbeil expects “considerable consequences” and losses for German economic growth. Has the gently stalled up again before it really started? The pressure on the Chancellor and his vice does not decrease.

In Lithuania, these worries are far away for a moment – and Klingbeil in his element. When he talks about his homeland Munster, the Bundeswehr site there and his soldier’s father. Klingbeil likes to talk about it to underline his proximity to the troop. In the morning he called Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, he says, he said that he should do best greetings. He does not say that he himself once refused military service.

By the end of 2027 at the latest, Germany plans to station 4800 soldiers as well as almost 200 civilian employees in Lithuania. According to Klingbeil, the massive growth of the German defense budget also secures the structure of the brigade. Goal: protect the NATO-East flank and deter Russia.

But there is still a lack of infrastructure, for example barracks that are now to be pulled up at high speed. By the end of the year, almost 500 soldiers should be stationed here. It is quickly progressing, they report, much more pragmat than in Germany – the construction activities are in Lithuania.

Klingbeil can’t worry about everything either.