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(Bloomberg) -- German lawmakers could move to ramp up defense spending even before a new parliament is sworn in next month, according to the country’s caretaker finance minister, Joerg Kukies.
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“Certainly, strengthening our defense effort in the course of the next years is something extremely important because we do want to strengthen the European pillar of NATO,” Kukies said Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg TV on the sidelines of a Group of 20 meeting in Cape Town, South Africa.
“The parliament has a mandate for the remainder of the term, but it is up to the parliament to decide what will be the content of potential agreements,” he added.
At the same time, he warned that there’s still a hole of “several billions” of euros in this year’s yet-to-be-finalized federal budget, addressing which will be a key part of coalition negotiations between Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz’s conservative bloc and the Social Democrats of outgoing incumbent Olaf Scholz.
“The finance minister always has to have a knowledge of the budgetary constraints and those are quite strong in Germany just for this year alone,” Kukies said.
After winning Sunday’s election, Merz is already talking with the SPD about debt-financed defense spending of as much as €200 billion ($210 billion), a person familiar with the discussions told Bloomberg on Monday.
Merz confirmed the talks when quizzed about the plans on Tuesday but said he could “neither confirm nor deny” additional investments of that magnitude are under discussion.
Some have questioned the democratic legitimacy of using the old parliament to approve controversial legislation after voters have chosen a new Bundestag, and the idea has drawn especially vitriolic condemnation from the Alternative for Germany.
The far-right party doubled its share of the vote in the election to nearly 21% and will be the strongest opposition force in the new legislature.
Saskia Esken, a co-leader of the Social Democrats, expressed her skepticism in an interview Wednesday with broadcasters RTL/n-tv.
“It’s difficult to justify to voters,” Esken said. “We should ensure that we find majorities for a good path in our country as a whole.”
Merz has said he wants to wrap up coalition talks with the SPD by Easter, which gives them just under two months to finalize an agreement to form a so-called Grand Coalition.