New German leadership discusses increasing defense spending by EUR 200 billion
Germany’s new political leaders are discussing a €200 billion increase in defense spending.
Bloomberg reported on this, citing its own sources.
These resources are needed to strengthen the country’s armed forces amid existing and potential threats in Europe. Especially given that the current US administration may withdraw its forces from the continent.
According to the source of the publication, Friedrich Merz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union, who received a mandate to form a government, has started negotiations with the Social Democrats (SPD) to approve special defense spending of EUR 200 billion as soon as possible.
It is noted that they are discussing ways to circumvent strict restrictions on public borrowing in Germany, freeing up resources to strengthen the military.
According to them, they are considering pushing through a vote on a new defense package that would be twice as large as the one approved three years ago after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
One of the options for implementing Merz’s plans is to create a new defense fund to finance the modernization of the German armed forces and assistance to Ukraine.
The second option is to expand the existing EUR 100 billion euro fund for military needs, overcoming the moratorium on government borrowing.
Bloomberg notes that both scenarios require a 2/3 majority, which is difficult to achieve in the new Bundestag, where the far right and radical left will have a significant number of seats.
Voting in the Bundestag
With less than two-thirds of the seats, the main parties do not have the votes to ease constitutional restrictions on government borrowing, the newspaper writes. But they could get around this problem by pushing through a vote before the new parliament convenes for its first session on March 24.
Merz and SPD leader Lars Klingbeil plan to have a phone conversation on Tuesday to discuss support for Ukraine and defense spending. Previously, Friedrich Merz announced his intention to change Berlin’s policy on supplying Ukraine with Taurus missiles after the elections.
The draft German budget, which was agreed last summer, assumed an increase in defense spending by EUR 1.3 billion to more than EUR 53 billion. However, after the collapse of the coalition government, its approval by the parliament was postponed. A vote on this issue could take place by mid-2025.
