GERMANY PROPOSES DEBT OVERHAUL TO REVAMP MILITARY AND ECONOMY- Merz says resources for national and NATO defence must be expanded
Germany’s conservatives and Social Democrats announced proposals on Tuesday to set up a 500 billion euro fund for infrastructure and overhaul borrowing rules to massively up defence spending.
The leader of the CDU/CSU, Friedrich Merz, said the country must apply whatever it takes concerning defence.
“We are counting on the United States of America to continue to stand by our mutual alliance obligations in the future. But we also know that the resources for our national and alliance defence must now be significantly expanded,” Merz said.
Merz said the CDU/CSU and SPD parliamentary group would submit a motion to the Bundestag lower house of parliament next week to amend the constitution so that defence expenditure above 1% of economic output is exempt from the debt brake.
“Europe needs to grow up and needs to be able to defend itself and we want to get this going as quickly as possible step by step,” Merz said.
