Incoming Germany's chancellor, Friedrich Merz, pressed lawmakers Tuesday to approve a massive defense and infrastructure spending package, citing the need to bolster the country against what he described as Russia's "war of aggression against Europe."
"It is a war against Europe and not just a war against the territorial integrity of Ukraine," Merz told parliament ahead of a vote on what local media have labeled a fiscal "bazooka" worth many hundreds of billions of euros.
Merz's CDU/CSU and their likely future coalition partners, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), plan to exempt defense spending from Germany's strict debt rules and to set up a 500-billion-euro ($545-billion) fund for infrastructure investments over 12 years.
They hope to push the measures through the legislature at a time when U.S. President Donald Trump's outreach to Russia and hostility toward Ukraine have shaken Europe and cast doubt over the future strength of transatlantic ties.
Merz said transatlantic ties were "indispensable" but Europe needed to do more to ensure its own security and Germany should play a leading role.
The spending boost is "nothing less than the first major step towards a new European defense community" that could also include non-EU members like Britain and Norway, he added.
Defence Minister Boris Pistorius, from the SPD of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, justified the mega-spending by saying "we are facing a new era for Europe, for Germany, for NATO, and for future generations."
He argued that boosting defense on the continent will strengthen the trans-Atlantic alliance in the long term "and place it on two legs, namely North America and Europe".
The hastily drawn plans represent a radical departure for a country traditionally reluctant to take on large amounts of debt or to spend heavily on the military given the horrors of its Nazi past.
But Merz, 69, whose conservative CDU/CSU alliance won the February elections, has promoted what has been dubbed an "XXL-sized" funding package as concerns grow that the United States' decades-old commitment to European defense is faltering.
In the short term, he has also urged Germany to free up an extra three billion euros of support for Ukraine in 2025.
The conservatives and the SPD have agreed on the plans to boost Germany's under-resourced military and ailing economy as part of their initial coalition talks in early March.
But instead of waiting until the new government is formed, the parties want to get the spending plans approved by the outgoing parliament.
Even in the outgoing assembly, the CDU/CSU and SPD are relying on the support of the Greens to help them reach the two-thirds majority required to modify the debt brake.
The Greens had threatened to withhold their support but a deal was struck late last week with Merz agreeing that 100 billion euros of the infrastructure fund will be dedicated to climate-protection measures.
In the next Bundestag, the far-right and Moscow-friendly Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the far-left Die Linke – which both oppose the plans – would have the numbers needed to block them.
The deal hangs on a margin of 31 votes, wrote Der Spiegel magazine, which warned that "some departing parliamentarians could take the opportunity to get back at the new government with a no vote."
Bernd Baumann of the AfD accused Merz of ignoring the will of voters by seeking to push the vote through the old parliament.
"The new Bundestag is the legitimate one" because "it has new majorities that the people want", Baumann said, charging that Merz "wants to buy himself the chancellorship from the SPD and the Greens, like in a banana republic."
Lars Klingbeil of the SPD said that the massive new spending aims to "maintain peace in Europe" but also "invest in advancing the economy and strengthening social cohesion."
He said the massive spending, "perhaps the largest package in the history of our country" would therefore also help counter "division and polarization."
The measures must also still be voted through the upper house of parliament on Friday, where they also require a two-thirds majority.
Coalition negotiations will then continue between the two big parties, with Merz aiming to have a government in place by Easter on April 20 or soon after.
If all goes according to plan, the new parliament will vote on whether to appoint him as chancellor on April 23.
