With an eye on Donald Trump’s Nato threats, Friedrich Merz has a plan that will permit effectively unlimited spending on defence
The leader of Germany 's Christian Democratic Union party Friedrich Merz has called a parliamentary session that promises to be an extraordinary moment in Bundestag history. Photograph: Ralf Hirschberger/AFP via Getty Images Germany ’s federal parliament is meeting to debate borrowing at least €1 trillion to invest in Germany ’s crumbling public infrastructure and deficient defence capabilities.
This instrument limits Germany’s structural deficit to 0.35 per cent of GDP and, as recently as last month’s election campaign, was held up by the CDU as a holy monstrance of sustainable public finance. No more. Just 10 days after his CDU election victory, Merz announced the death of the Swabian housewife in a spectacular political U-turn. “In view of the threats to our freedom and to peace on our continent,” Merz said, “what applies now to our defence is the motto: Whatever it takes.”threats, the Merz plan will permit effectively unlimited spending on defence.
It opposes debt brake reform and, sensing opportunity, filed an injunction at the federal constitutional court demanding a halt to Thursday’s sitting, which it calls a “fiscal coup d’etat”. Quite a few people, as it happens, such as the 208 CDU MPs elected last month after telling their millions of voters that Germany’s looming challenges could be financed by judicious reforms and budget cuts – not €1 trillion in fresh borrowing.
The reason for the U-turn, Merz aides say, was the need to move quickly ahead of last Thursday’s emergency European Council meeting. Amid huge uncertainty over Ukraine, Trump and Nato, Merz expedited the defence-investment plan so that outgoing SPD chancellorSenior CDU politician Gunther Krichbaum says massive off-balance sheet borrowing is “not unproblematic” but justified given growing uncertainty. “Don’t forget the debt brake will still apply to the regular federal budget,” he said.
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