Politicians clash over Czechia's defense spending shortfall
Defense spending is back in the spotlight after NATO confirmed that the Czech Republic would fail to meet the set 2 % defense spending target in 2026. This will place the country among the problem members not pulling their weight in collective defense at a time of growing need.
When the government of Prime Minister Andrej Babiš took office in mid-December, it completely re-drafted the proposed state budget for 2026, on the argument that it projected a shortfall of CZK 286 billion. Within the rewrite, it cut core defense spending by 21 billion crowns, citing other priorities in the health and social spheres.
While the previous government had pledged to raise defense spending by at least 0.2 percentage point every year, aiming for 3.0% of GDP in 2030, Prime Minister Babiš, stressed that he did not feel bound by the commitment, adding that his administration would spend as much as it could.
Having said that, he stressed that spending on defense had increased as compared to 2025 and appeared confident that NATO would recognize the set 2 percent target. On Sunday he was forced to admit that this was not the case, but stressed that his predecessors had fared no better.
“According to NATO’s figures the Czech Republic did not meet the 2 % target even under the former government. In 2024 NATO only recognized 1.97 percent, last year it recognized 1.85 percent. For 2026, we reported 2.06 percent, and NATO says it is only 1.78 percent,” he stated.
According to the 2026 state budget, projected defense expenditures are expected to reach CZK 185 billion, with CZK 30 billion coming from other budget chapters which NATO did not recognize.
Among them are expenditures of over 50 billion crowns from the European SAFE fund, established last year to provide loans for military equipment, which the Czech Republic plans to use for projects such as completing the D11 motorway.
The prime minister said that the government would try to persuade NATO partners to recognize these investments as defense spending, since infrastructure is crucial for military transfers. He stressed the need for the country to fulfill its defense needs in a comprehensive manner, rather than pouring money into a particular segment that would be recognized. As regards troops, he said Czechia has the 13th biggest army in the 31-member alliance and is recruiting more soldiers.
He added that the Czech Republic would also need to learn from other NATO members, such as Turkey, which were able to meet the 2 % target partly by including expenditures for the construction of military hospitals. The Czech government announced earlier this year that it planned to build a multi-billion-crown hospital complex in Prague, which the prime minister said would now be built as a military facility.
While Prime Minister Babiš reads the country’s failure to meet the 2% defense spending target as a matter of interpreting expenditures, the opposition argues that the present administration is putting the country’s security and its reputation among NATO allies at risk.
They claim that in the past two years Czechia had fulfilled the 2 percent defense target and have asked for the NATO report cited by the prime minister to be made public.
While Mr. Babiš appears confident that at the upcoming NATO summit his team will be able to defend the country’s position, opposition leaders and President Pavel view the recent visit to Prague by NATO’s chief Mark Rutte as a nudge for the Czech Republic to better fulfill its commitment to collective defense and have urged the government to top up the missing funds.
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