Other German politicians have equally rebuked US President-elect Donald Trump over his demand that NATO's European members should more than double their defence spending.
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00:00Speaking at his first stop of his election campaign tour in Bielefeld, German Chancellor
00:07Olaf Scholz pushed back on a demand made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump last week
00:12who had asked NATO's European members to more than double their defense spending.
00:17Trump requested for an increase to 5 percent, which Scholz said would be too costly.
00:23He said that 5 percent would be over 200 billion euros per year and noted that the federal
00:28budget is not even 500 billion euros.
00:32Scholz concluded that he would adhere to the current NATO target of at least 2 percent.
00:41The Social Democrat leader kicked off his election campaign in Bielefeld and is planning
00:45more than 30 public talks between now and the day of the election.
00:50Germany's election campaign is now in full swing.
00:53The Christian Democrat Union and its leader Friedrich Merz are currently leading the polls
00:58with 30 percent.
00:59They are followed by the far-right AfD party with Alice Weidel as its candidate, polling
01:04at 20 percent.
01:06Olaf Scholz and his Social Democrats came in around 14 to 17 percent in the polls.