German politicians rebuff U.S. ambassador's interference in national affairs

BERLIN, March 19 (Xinhua) -- German politicians on Tuesday rebuffed comments made by Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador in Berlin, about Germany's planned defense spending over the next few years.

Grenell "is a complete diplomatic failure," Carsten Schneider, first secretary of the German Social Democrats (SPD) parliamentary group, told the German Press Agency (dpa) on Tuesday.

Wolfgang Kubicki, vice-president of the German Free Democratic Party (FDP), was more pronounced in his criticism and told AFP that Germany should immediately declare "Richard Grenell a persona non grata."

"Any U.S. diplomat who acts like a high commissioner of an occupying power must learn that our tolerance also knows its limits," Kubicki said.

On Monday, the U.S. ambassador in Berlin criticized the Germany government's political decisions, saying that the 45 billion euros (51 billion U.S. dollars) planned for the defense budget that was laid out by Germany's Finance Minister Olaf Scholz was too little.

"The fact that the German government is even considering reducing its already unacceptable contributions to military readiness is a disturbing signal from Germany to its 28 NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies," said Grenell.

In its latest budget plans, Germany would be moving away from NATO's goal of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense. The German Finance Ministry expects the country's NATO quota to be 1.37 percent by 2020 but fall to 1.25 percent by 2023.

"NATO members have made a clear commitment to move towards 2 percent by 2024 and not away from it," Grenell told dpa on Monday.

Such comments are "no longer tolerable," FDP politician Kubicki said, adding that Germany should, for reasons of self-respect, not put up with such behavior. "With his repeated clumsy provocations, Grenell is damaging transatlantic relations," said SPD's Schneider in response to the U.S. ambassador's interventions in German politics in recent weeks. Enditem