Germany’s likely next government seeks to boost defence amid doubts about US
Friedrich Merz said Germany must quickly strengthen its defence capability because of the ‘increasing threat situation’
The prospective partners in Germany’s next government said Tuesday they would seek to loosen the nation’s rules on running up debt to allow for higher defence spending, an issue of growing urgency as doubts increase about the United States’ commitment to European allies.
They also said they would seek to set up a €500 billion (US$533 billion) fund to finance spending on Germany’s often-creaking infrastructure over the next 10 years to restore the economy – Europe’s biggest, which has shrunk for the last two years – to “a stable growth course”.
Centre-right election winner Friedrich Merz, who was trying to form a coalition government with the centre-left Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said the two sides will propose exempting the spending of more than 1 per cent of gross domestic product on defence from rules that limit the government’s ability to borrow money.
He said they would bring the proposals for that and the infrastructure package, which would be financed by loans, to Germany’s outgoing parliament next week. Recent weeks have brought new urgency to efforts to further strengthen the country’s long-neglected military.
“In view of the increasing threat situation, it is clear to us that Europe – and with Europe, the Federal Republic of Germany – must now very quickly make very big efforts, very quickly, to strengthen the defence capability of our country and the European continent,” Merz told reporters.
