The note from De Maiziere to parliament’s defense committee details plans to cut by 37 to 140 the order for Eurofigher aircraft, to reduce an order for Puma tanks to 350 from 410 and to slash an order for Tiger combat helicopters to 40 from 80.The minister also wants to reduce the number of NH-90 helicopters to 80 from 120.The cuts would free up funds for the ministry, allowing it to improve efficiency within the armed forces, De Maiziere wrote.The aircraft affected are made by the consortium of European aerospace and defense group EADS, Britain’s BAE Systems and Italy’s Finmeccanica The Puma tanks are made by Germany’s Rheinmetall and Krauss-Maffei Wegmann (KMW).De Maiziere said in the paper he would meet defense industry representatives on Wednesday to discuss the orders, and he was sure a mutually satisfactory solution could be found.He had complained in the past that much of Germany’s defense budget was hamstrung by large orders, some of which dated from the cold war.Germany plans to reduce the number of its troops to 65,000 from 185,000 and this year ended compulsory military service. Germany has around 5,200 soldiers deployed as part of NATO’s mission in Afghanistan, most of them in the north.Further cuts detailed in de Maiziere’s paper included a reduction to the order for drones to 16 from 22, and for high-flying unmanned Global Hawks to 4 from 6.
Tags:
Germany
wants
to
cut
defense
orders
42 notes
* Election in April/May, polls favour leftBy Brian LovePARIS, Oct 16 (Reuters) - French left-wingers vote on Sunday
to designate the presidential candidate whose mission will be to
unseat Nicolas Sarkozy in an election next year, and the
favourite is Francois Hollande, a moderate Socialist Party
veteran little known beyond France.In a U.S.-style primary, the first of its kind in France,
voters choose between Hollande, who has never held a national
government post, and Martine Aubry, one-time labour minister,
architect of France’s 35-hour week and daughter of the former
European Commission President Jacques Delors.Opinion polls give Hollande a lead of six percentage points
over Aubry in a ballot that decides which of the two will run in
a presidential contest that the Socialists have not won since
Francois Mitterand was re-elected in 1988.The polls suggest French voters are ready to put the left
back in power after five years of conservative Sarkozy, who is
unpopular but widely expected to seek another five-year term.The left’s runaway favourite to become president had been
former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn
but his IMF career and presidential hopes were halted when he
was arrested in New York in May on charges of sexually
assaulting a hotel maid. The charges have since been dropped.The ease with which Hollande and Aubry have filled his shoes
suggests that many voters are simply weary of Sarkozy and his
economic policies.Sunday’s voting at 10,000 polling stations will close at
1700 GMT. Preliminary results are expected a few hours later.CONCILIATORY NOTEHollande and Aubry sparred in the days before the primary
but Aubry seized on France’s World Cup rugby semi-final win over
Wales to sound a conciliatory note ahead of Sunday’s vote.”When it’s time for the post-match session, everyone parties
together,” she told reporters. “That’s how it’ll be on Monday.”She dismissed polls that show Hollande scoring 53 percent of
the vote to her 47 percent, preferring to highlight declarations
of support from several prominent environmentalist politicians.In a primary inspired by the momentum that carried Barack
Obama to the White House, the Socialist Party has organised a
two-round contest where anyone who pays a euro and declares
allegiance to left-wing values can vote.More than 2.6 million people voted in the first-round last
Sunday, when anti-globalisation hardliner Arnaud Montebourg
scored a surprise 17 percent.Hollande, who promised in the ensuing days to crack down on
banks and financial market excess, has consolidated his position
versus Aubry by securing the support of the four contenders
knocked out in round one, including Montebourg.Hollande, seen by many as more centre-left, won 39 percent
of the first-round vote, versus 30 percent for Aubry, often
labelled as a more old-school Socialist. The four candidates
knocked out — including Segolene Royal, Hollande’s former
companion and mother of his four children — got close to 30
percent.But both Hollande and Aubry share the main tenets of a
Socialist Party manifesto that promises to scrap 50 billion
euros of tax breaks that mostly went to the wealthy under
Sarkozy, using half of this money to fund state jobs and promote
growth, with the rest to cut the deficit.Sarkozy, who took power in 2007 after 12 years of Jacques
Chirac, has yet to declare a re-election bid.Opinion polls show him trailing either Hollande or Aubry in
the election which takes place in two rounds on April 22 and May
6, followed weeks later by a parliamentary election.
Tags:
French
left
picks
presidential
runner
Hollande
favoured
43 notes
button
