This Cannot Go On! - Open Declaration for Peace - Stop Billions for Arms, War, and Military Aid. For Fair Politics - For Our Homeland

While you and many parliamentarians count on tanks and rockets, we in towns and municipalities have to count every euro twice. While you pour billions upon billions into armament, rearmament, and foreign deployments, we are fighting for the survival of our social and local infrastructure – indeed, for our homeland and prosperity.

📜 Open Letter to the German Bundestag and the Chancellor
Here on Hiddensee, we want to build housing, renovate and digitize our school – and finally construct a proper gym. Our harbors need new piers, and there is urgent need for investment in flood protection. The same goes for our fire departments and infrastructure for locals and guests. But we are told there is no money for any of this. No “special funds,” no “turning point,” no “alliance for our homeland.” Instead: budget freezes, bureaucracy, austerity plans, and endless audits.

Now an “investment summit” is being celebrated in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania with great fanfare – 1.92 billion euros from a special fund for the entire state. Sounds like a lot, but in reality the amount is spread over ten years – meaning just 192 million euros per year for the whole state.

But how much of that actually reaches the municipalities? Who decides which projects get funded – and who is left empty-handed? And how are over 700 towns and communities in the state supposed to benefit meaningfully, when millions are already needed just on Hiddensee for school renovations, housing, and coastal protection?

What we lack are not headlines boasting billions – but reliable funding allocations, planning certainty, and fair participation for small communities as well.

The situation becomes especially absurd when compared to other expenditures:
While all municipalities in MV receive 1.92 billion euros over 10 years, the federal government plans to allocate around 7 billion euros in 2025 alone for weapons and military support for Ukraine – year after year, increasing, without any public debate on priorities.
On top of that are 100 billion euros in special funds for the Bundeswehr and a more than 70 billion euro defense budget per year – and rising.

NATO's 2% GDP target will soon mean over 100 billion euros per year for Germany – permanently.

In a few years, Germany will be spending more on the military than on education, healthcare, or housing – combined.
And who pays for that? Not Rheinmetall. Not Lockheed Martin. Not General Dynamics. Not the USA, which recently promised and delivered Patriot missiles.
We do – the citizens.

We, the municipalities, towns, and cities, are witnessing how the welfare state – and with it our homeland – is slowly being drained. While billions are freed up for fighter jets, Leopard tanks, and missiles, we lack the funds for schools, teaching staff, fire departments, healthcare, pensions, housing, and disaster response.

The federal government has apparently made its choice: For rearmament, debt, and military readiness – and against social justice, local agency, and common sense.

To justify this by claiming “responsibility for future generations” is hard to accept. These generations will be paying the debt – hopefully long after tanks are a thing of the past.

We now need a radical policy shift in favor of local governments and our homeland:
– Investments in schools, housing, hospitals, fire departments, public transit, and eldercare instead of war machines.
– A return to the peace mandate of the German constitution and the UN Charter’s prohibition on the use of force.
– And if special funds are needed, then finally create them for social cohesion, for our homeland, and for peace – not just for military adventures.

Our country doesn't need “tank godparents” – it needs a social dividend, an education initiative, and a real infrastructure package. And it needs political courage to resist the arms frenzy.

Because peace is not won on the battlefield – but in schools, in affordable housing, in community spirit, and on playgrounds.

I sincerely hope that many colleagues in politics – and everyone who calls this place home – will share this understanding and join in.

With determined regards,

Thomas Gens
Mayor of the Island of Hiddensee

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