The two parties attempting to form Germany’s new authorities have plans to invest hundreds of billions of dollars in defense and facilities when they are in power, according to the Bild newspaper on Sunday.
As Europe’s largest economy pauses and the United States ‘ visible tilt toward Russia casts doubt over the country’s security, both issues have become all the more pressing for Berlin’s potential new rulers.
According to Bild, who cites several sources close to the negotiations, the investment plan was discussed on Friday at coalition talks between the center-left Social Democrats ( SPD ) and the conservative CDU/CSU alliance, which won recent elections.
Both parties are considering the establishment of two urgent specific investment funds, one for the exhausted German army and the other for the reconstruction of the nation’s crumbling infrastructure.
According to the newspaper, the amounts discussed for each of the funds are” significantly higher” than the 100 billion euros ($ 104 billion ) that the German army had already set aside in 2022 for the purpose of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The negotiators on both sides examined scholar reports that evaluated the needs of the German troops at 400 billion dollars and that of the country’s equipment at half a trillion euros, Bild continued.
The two funds are intended to be emergency investing outside the national budget, and they are free from Germany’s “debt brake,” which places a tight legal cap on how much money the government can borrow in times of crisis.
Both events, according to Bild, are considering reducing that limitation, which is increasingly seen by many Germans as a straitjacket unfit for the challenges the nation faces.
However, any for reform would need a two-thirds of the new legislature’s proposed Conservative-Social Democrat partnership to have.
