Parties of the future coalition in Germany have agreed on a €500 billion fund for infrastructure and defense

This was reported by Ukrinform with reference to Frankfurter Allgemeine.

"Against the backdrop of growing threats, the CDU/CSU and the SPD want to ensure very high additional spending on defense and infrastructure. As the parties announced at a press conference in Berlin on Tuesday evening, they want to create a special fund of 500 billion euros for infrastructure development and relax debt limits for defense spending," the report says.

CDU leader and likely future chancellor Friedrich Merz said that given the current global situation, it is important that "very big efforts" are made "very quickly" in Europe and Germany to overcome the challenges. For this reason, all defense spending exceeding 1% of GDP should be exempted from the debt brake restrictions in the future. According to estimates, this could affect around 43 billion euros.

In addition, a new special fund of 500 billion euros, financed by loans, will be created for “rapid and sustainable investment in our infrastructure” over a ten-year period. This special fund is also expected to “incentivize large-scale private investment.”

Merz added that the CDU/CSU and SPD factions would submit corresponding proposals for changes to the Basic Law to the Bundestag next week. According to him, the principle of "whatever the cost" should now also apply to defense capabilities.