Chancellor-in-waiting Merz ready to override ‘debt brake’ to ramp up defence spending
PUBLISHED : 5 Mar 2025 at 19: 45
Friedrich Merz, leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union party, leaves after a meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin, on March 5. (Photo: AFP)
BERLIN – Germany is set to rearm in a way not seen since World War II after the likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said his government would vastly increase defence spending.
The announcement means Germany will effectively have to override its constitutionally enshrined “debt brake” so it can up its defence budget by 100 billion euros ($107 billion) a year as Europe braces for a weakening of the US defence umbrella.
“There are moments in which the history of a country takes an unexpected turn,” the Zeit newspaper said on Wednesday, adding that Merz’s plans “may turn out to be one such moment”.
The plans were unveiled Tuesday as part of speeded-up talks between Merz’s centre-right CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) on a possible coalition after last month’s general election.
Their tempo was stepped up further after Friday’s televised row between US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, with the White House then freezing aid to Kyiv.
Merz, a longtime Atlanticist who had previously baulked at financing public spending through large-scale debt, has quickly changed his tune given the head-sp
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