Tax & Spend
Germany’s Military Spending Plans in Doubt After Rise of AfD and Left Parties
This article is for subscribers only.
Friedrich Merz’s plans to ramp up defense spending in Germany have hit an early obstacle after a surge in support for fringe parties left him potentially locked into strict restrictions on government borrowing.
The combination of a narrower-than-expected victory for his conservative bloc and poor showings from the Social Democrats and Greens means that the three mainstream groups in the new parliament will be short of the necessary votes to revise the so-called debt brake enshrined in the constitution.