Berlin (TDI): Germany is set to rearm in a way not seen since World War II after the likely next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, stated his government would vastly increase defence spending.
The decision means Berlin will effectively have to override its constitutionally enshrined “debt brake” so it can increase its defence spending by $107 billion a year as Europe braces for a weakening of the US defence umbrella.
The plans were announced on Tuesday as part of expedited 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 assistance to Kyiv.
Merz, a longtime Atlanticist who had previously baulked at financing public spending through large-scale debt, has swiftly changed his tune given the head-spinning pace of events.
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Germany’s EU partners, who are gathering for a major summit on Thursday to discuss Ukraine and defence, had been waiting for action from Berlin after months of political paralysis since the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government in November.
Alongside the huge increase in defence spending, Merz wants to set up a 500 billion euro fund to upgrade the country’s creaking infrastructure and help drag it out of two straight years of recession.
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Current German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has described the plans as a historic day for the military and for Germany, a country which has been wary of projecting military might since the horrors it perpetrated under Nazism.
