Germany’s constitution will be changed to accommodate a new special €100 billion ($107.35 billion) credit-based defense fund, the country’s Finance Minister Christian Lindner has confirmed.
On Sunday, the ruling coalition comprised of the Social Democratic Party, the Greens and the Free Democratic Party had to engage in talks with the leading opposition party, CDU/CSU, to secure a two-thirds majority in parliament needed to exempt the defense fund from a constitutional debt brake. According to reports in German media, it took the parties more than three hours to reach a consensus.
Taking to Twitter in the early hours of Monday, Lindner wrote: “Accomplished. Agreement on the Bundeswehr fund. We are ensuring together that the Bundeswehr will be reinforced with 100 billion Euros in additional investments in the coming years. At the same time, the debt brake for all the other schemes remains in place.”