Politics Green parliamentary group leaders in Germany oppose financial package
The German Greens do not want to approve the billion-euro defense and infrastructure package from the CDU/CSU and SPD. Katharina Dröge, chairwoman of the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag, said in Berlin that she and co-chairwoman Britta Hasselmann had recommended that the parliamentary group not vote in favor of the package.
10.03.2025, 12:29
SDA
Party leader Franziska Brantner said that the Greens were not available to finance election gifts from the Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. It was about a sustainable reform of the debt brake.
In their exploratory talks for a new German government, the CDU, CSU and SPD had agreed to relax the debt brake for higher defense spending and to create a debt-financed special fund of 500 billion euros for infrastructure.
Dröge said that the CDU/CSU and SPD wanted to create a treasure trove of play money to be used for tax relief, a reform of the agricultural diesel tax and an increase in the commuter tax allowance.
The Greens had initially left their approval open. The approach of CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader and candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), who had rejected talks on similar projects before the election, caused displeasure in the parliamentary group. This was compounded by CSU leader Markus Söder's outbursts against the Greens at the political Ash Wednesday.
In terms of content, the Greens had demanded detailed proposals as well as money for climate protection. In terms of defense, the parliamentary group had also insisted that greater consideration be given to the intelligence services, for example.
The amendments to the Basic Law were to be submitted to the plenary on March 13 and passed by the old Bundestag on March 18. The calculation was to use the old composition of parliament for this purpose. In the newly elected Bundestag, which will be constituted on March 25, the parties of the extreme right and left together would have a blocking minority.
