Germany’s Greens have said they will not offer vital support for the prospective new government’s plans to loosen debt rules for defence spending and to draw up a huge infrastructure investment fund, as things stand.
Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, who won last month’s German election, is trying to put together a coalition with outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s centre-left Social Democrats.
Last week, the two sides said they would seek to exempt some defence spending from the nation’s tight self-imposed rules on running up debt, an issue of growing urgency as doubts increase about the US commitment to European allies.
They also want to set up a 500 billion euro (£419 billion) fund, financed by borrowing, to invest in Germany’s creaking infrastructure over the next 10 years and help restore the economy to growth.
The Greens’ support is vital for the move (dpa via AP)
Their plans will need a two-thirds majority in parliament because Germany’s “debt brake” – which allows new borrowing worth only 0.35% of annual gross domestic product – is anchored in the constitution.
And they are trying to get them through the outgoing parliament next week, rather than the newly elected one, because parties that for different reasons are unlikely to agree to the plans have just over one-third of the seats in the new chamber.
Since Mr Merz’s Union bloc and the Social Democrats do not have enough seats to pass the plans on their own, they need support from the environmentalist Greens.
The leadership of the Greens’ parliamentary group decided Monday to recommend that their legislators reject the plans, co-leader Katharina Droge said.
She added that the Greens have long sought a reform of the “debt brake” to ease investment in the economy and measures against climate change, while Mr Merz had insisted before the election that there was no need to finance such investments through borrowing.
Ms Droge argued that the prospective coalition partners’ proposed infrastructure fund would not actually target useful investments, but instead serve as a “treasure chest” for measures such as tax cuts.
Asked about the Greens’ comments, the general secretary of Mr Merz’s Christian Democratic Union, Carsten Linnemann, said talks would be held with the Greens “and then we will see how far we get”.
His party also plans to talk to the pro-business Free Democrats, but that party has strongly criticised running up more debt.