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The leader of the Democratic Socialist Party and former European Parliament President said that the increase is a bad idea because of Germanys past.

Mr Schulz has argued for developing a European defence union and ultimately a European army.

He said in an article co-written with German politician Thomas Oppermann: "Merkel and the Christian Democratic Union make themselves small vis-a-vis Donald Trump when they answer his provocations around the two-percent target by saying, 'Okay, fine, we'll put in more money,' as if we didn't have any better ideas what to do.

They said that increased military spending should be matched by humanitarian aid, crisis prevention and diplomacy.

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U.S. President Donald Trump and Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May react during a ceremony at the new NATO headquarters in Brussels

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Mr Oppermann has called for more investment in Germanys own army, the Bundeswehr, rather than adhere to an arbitrary spending goal.

He said: Defence expenditures will increase, but this must not be followed by an irrelevant quotas logic, but a comprehensive security logic.

The staunch opposition will likely infuriate Washington as the issue of contributions to the alliance has been raised repeatedly by Trump.

Trump said that Germany owes vast sums of money to NATO because of their consistent failure to meet the target.

Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen said that it was in Europes best interest that Berlin keeps its promise to increase NATO spending, which was agreed by all members in 2006.

She called the SPDs rhetoric part of a totally messed up election campaign.

The German elections are held on September 24 and the SPD currently trails behind the CPU by double digits in the polls.

Originally posted here:

Former EU President and Merkel challenger rejects NATO spending in favour of European ARMY - Express.co.uk