Above photo: The Left bloc brings the peace flag to the European Parliament session. Source: The Left in the EP/X.
Ursula von der Leyen pitched her rearmament agenda to the European Parliament.
Only left parliamentarians pushed back against the pressure to expand military spending.
The race to ReArm Europe showed no signs of slowing during a debate in the European Parliament on Tuesday, as political representatives across the spectrum threw their weight behind the military expansion plans of European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa. The only occasional rebuke from centrist and right-wing parties was that the proposal doesn’t go far enough in light of Donald Trump’s return to the White House and the widening disconnect between his administration and European governments.
Von der Leyen has recently proposed a plan to pump up to €850 billion (USD 929 billion) into European military capacities, drawing from a mix of national budgets, EU funds, and private sector contributions.
The only real opposition was voiced by The Left, whose representatives rejected the understanding that security can only be achieved through militarization. Martin Schirdewan of Die Linke warned that ReArm Europe would eventually benefit US arms manufacturers rather than the safety of European citizens. He argued that the EU’s exclusion from Ukraine peace talks was a direct consequence of its dependence on the US and the failure to prioritize diplomacy over military solutions. Stating that “NATO is already history,” Schirdewan suggested that if Europe is serious about building a safer geopolitical environment, it should nationalize its arms industry to ensure that no one profits from war.
Schirdewan’s group colleague Marc Botenga of the Workers’ Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) also condemned the proposal, criticizing the decision to allocate hundreds of billions of euros for military spending instead of strengthening social protections or labor rights.
He pointed out that while European officials argue that arming against Russia is necessary, EU member states already outspend their so-called adversary on defense. “This week, the German press reported that we have four times as many warships, three times as many battle tanks, three times as much artillery, and twice as many fighter jets as Russia,” Botenga stated. “Meanwhile, Russia is—fortunately—yet to occupy even a quarter of Ukraine. So no, Russian tanks will not be rolling into the Grand-Place in Brussels anytime soon.”
Beyond these critiques, von der Leyen’s plan received broad approval, with most parties floating only minor adjustments. The Greens insisted that European security concerns should not interfere with the green transition, but did not challenge the premise of increased arms spending. Social Democrats timidly suggested that social protections should not fall victim to the inflated military budget and encouraged addressing this by raising additional EU funds, easing the burden on national budgets. Right-wing parties also endorsed the overall plan: the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) bloc stressed that Europe must remain close to NATO, while the far-right Patriots for Europe called for military independence from the United States but not for the dismantling of the Western bloc. Any doubts about whether these factions will eventually converge on the issue were resolved as both, in one way or another, referred to Italy’s far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni as a leading figure in future European diplomatic efforts while the continent rearms.
During Tuesday’s parliamentary debate, several even more ambitious suggestions emerged. The European People’s Party floated the idea of locating “deterrence” missile systems along Eastern Europe’s borders, while others pushed for the endorsement of Emmanuel Macron’s idea of treating France’s nuclear arsenal as a collective European defense asset. How any of these options could go terribly wrong seems obvious only to roughly 50 of the 720 members of the European Parliament who have explicitly opposed von der Leyen’s rearmament intentions until now.