Berlin goes on for defense investments. The German Federal Council voted in favor of the constitutional amendment which, approved on Tuesday by the Bundestag, repeals the brake on debt in the military and infrastructure expense sector. Now it will therefore be possible to finance the plan of about 500 billion euros, advocated by the next chancellor, Friedrich Merz. A plan that, to be approved, obtained the support of the Greens, who had 100 billion of climatic investments as a counterpart.
It is a turning point implemented by the outgoing German parliament, with which Merz He hinted that he wants to substantially loosen Berlin’s relations with Washington. “My absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really reach independence from the United States,” said the person concerned immediately after the last federal elections.
Not only that. Merz he also slammed a door in the face to JD Vance That, speaking in February at the Munich conference conference, had made it clear that the White House would have seen a political coalition, consisting of CDU and Afd: a solution that the next chancellor has instead excluded, preferring an alliance with the Social Democrats. Which, for the Trump administration, is doubly problematic. In fact, he believes first of all that such a coalition will not give rise to a stable executive. Secondly, he fears, not entirely wrong, that the Merz government, in the end, will not invert the Filocinese line, carried out so much from Olaf Scholz how much from Angela Merkel.
Among other things, the mega package approved by Germany will probably have a weight in orienting Brussels policy compared to the United States. Not surprisingly, the green light, which arrived from the Bundestag Tuesday, had been greeted favorably by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der leyenwhich, let’s remember, was German Defense Minister from 2013 to 2019, during the chancellor of the Merkel.
In short, the risk is that, instead of seeking compromises through negotiations with the White House, the EU, mainly pushed by Berlin, ends up aggravating transatlantic tensions. A scenario, this, which would condemn Brussels to further geopolitical irrelevance, especially while the United States are looking with increasing attention to the global South.
