For all the austerity, Greece has a very well-funded military
In debate and debate about global austerity, one thing we've learned time and time again is that military spending is sacred. When there is talk about budget savings, it's almost never in the discussion.
You can draw your own conclusions why but this might be instructive.
In Greece, they've cut everything but the military budget is still high. The most-recent numbers I can find show Greece spent 2.5% of GDP on the military in 2014 and that ratio has likely risen since. In comparison, Germany spends just 1.3%, Italy 1.5% and even nuclear power France only 2.2%.
German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung reported yesterday that the EU's Juncker put forward a proposal that would have allowed Greece to defer 400 million euros in pension cuts if it cut the same amount from military spending.
What happened? The IMF vetoed it.
Evidently, the EU hasn't given up on the idea and a report from MNI, citing unnamed sources, says the Juncker proposal is still on the table and that Greece can still submit counter proposals to get a deal, including ones that increase cuts in military spending.
