http://archive.today/2025.03.14-162143/https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/14/world/europe/germany-defense-climate-spending-deal.html
Friedrich Merz, the likely next chancellor of Germany, announced on Friday that he had secured the votes to allow for extensive new government spending, including for defense, clearing the way for a stunning turnabout in German strategic and fiscal policy before he even takes office.
The measures would lift Germany’s hallowed limits on government borrowing as they apply to military spending. It would exempt all spending on defense above 1 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product from those limits, and it would define “defense” broadly to include intelligence spending, information security and more.
Effectively, that would allow Germany to spend as much as it can feasibly borrow to rebuild its military.
The Green Party posted on X that the agreement would immediately provide Ukraine with 3 billion euros in support, and that the deal “finally takes the challenges of the future seriously.”
“There will no longer be a lack of financial resources to defend freedom and peace on our continent,” Mr. Merz said, adding: “Germany is back. Germany is making a major contribution to defending freedom and peace in Europe.”