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Once presented as a final line of defense against debt madness, Friedrich Merz is now set to push Germany’s new debt into the 1 trillion euro range. The programme accelerates the country’s economic decline, written by Joachim Nikolaus Steinhofel.
CDU’s Friedrich Merz wants to be Germany’s next prime minister, but as a two-metre-high Christian Democrat, the leading politicians who quickly shrink to dwarves’ heights rarely shrink before his estimated inauguration.
Observers have long known that Merz can rapidly change in direction as opportunism directs, and that it is well established that there is also a lack of backbone to confront unpleasant necessities.
Now, the potential future German Prime Minister has demonstrated his extraordinary awkwardness in foreign policy issues with particular emphasis.
Merz responded to former Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s demands that Germany should “have more (like) mylay,” claiming that Argentine President Javier Mailey’s policies would ruin the nation and trample on the people.
It appears that Meltz had not noticed the grand success of Mailei’s policy and the shift in the Argentine economy. Furthermore, amateurishly, self-proclaimed transatlantic Mertz responded to a speech by US Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference.
He described Vance’s statement as “an almost overwhelming approach for Europeans, especially our Germans.” He added, “I won’t tell the Vice President of America who I should talk to here in Germany.”
This sounds very confident, but it completely lacks reality. Germany will play military and politically in the second league, and Mertz will soon feel the consequences of not being in a position to determine the conditions.
Once the “last line of defense against debt” is everything for that
German military dwarfism is now in opposition to historic debt, which the CDU is opposed to everything voters promised before the recent general election.
There was no more blatant 360-degree turnaround to cite German Foreign Minister Annalena Bearbock, who is still serving on the promise of the campaign in Germany.
According to a report by Der Spiegel, Merz has fallen into internet rumours that US President Donald Trump will announce his withdrawal from NATO in his recent coalition speech.
This led him to be persuaded by potential coalition partners by debt orgy where he received nothing in return, particularly in regards to immigration policy.
This humiliation by the Social Democrats, who suffered the worst election outcome since the 19th century, will diminish history as a historic failure of coalition negotiations.
Merz and CDU can bet that they will hand over hundreds of billions to even marginalized greens for pet projects such as climate protection. Once presented as a final line of defense against debt madness, Friedrich Merz is now set to push Germany’s new debt into the 1 trillion euro range.
Can I vote for this if I have been sent?
There are also concerns about the democratic legitimacy of the resignation of the Congress, which will decimate future governments and determine the broad constitutional amendments necessary to implement Mertz’s debt program.
Moreover, just for this purpose, the new Congressional constituency session is inevitably delayed. Many interpret this as ignoring the will of voters.
Merz promised the exact opposite to the whole country, but no new debts, but he now uses or abuses the Bundestag, a German parliament that was voted on, and wants to lead the country and future generations to the “road to the army” and the bondage of debt.
Friedrich Merz knows he won’t get a majority on this in the newly elected Congress. That is why those who are voted from their positions should go to the end, engraving this huge burden into the German constitution.
Dietrich Marsweek, the leading German constitutional lawyer, evaluated the events as follows: “The old passage is not because the project cannot be postponed, but because it is a quick decision for the sole purpose of tricking up the newly elected bandet tag and presenting fait repuri with the help of the old majority.”
“This approach shows a light emptying against the will of the voters, and in fact a light emptying against the democratic justification process. The political class arrogantly ignores those whose power of the state should be radiated in democracy,” Murswiek added.
“There was no respect for the election outcome or respect for the Constitution. The constitution quickly changed because the majority needed to do so was simply lost in the election.”
More debt, more problems
The debt, misleadingly referred to as Sondervermögen (“Special Assets”), amounts to about 20% of Germany’s national products. Therefore, the country’s debt ranges from 65% to 85%. This is not only a serious violation of the Maastricht debt standards, but it also expands money supply and significantly worsens Germany’s credit rating.
A 0.35% debt of GDP previously permitted under Article 115 of the Constitution would effectively be a minimum annual obligation of 4.5% PA over a ten-year term.
Therefore, many countries in the eurozone also turn their backs on fiscal discipline and ignore the debt rules of the Maastricht Treaty. This has a major impact on the German and eurozone bond markets, resulting in significant interest rates rising. Therefore, the new European sovereign debt and banking crisis is coming in a few years.
Rising interest rates in capital markets and absorption of most economic savings lead to gatherings of private investment, a significant increase in government spending rates, lower private investment activity, and lower economic productivity.
Short-term growth may be stimulated through government demand in the spirit of Keynes’ economic stimulus programme, but the above effects are overcompensated for this in the medium term.
Given the performance profile of German authorities on the procurement, it is expected that a large portion of the program will be wasted. From an economic standpoint, defense spending is government consumption. Because tanks and other acquisitions are not designed to produce anything in the future. In this sense, they don’t even have an investment.
In terms of infrastructure, states’ inefficient and inadequate procurement systems generally pay twice as many private companies as for the same outcome.
If this is allocated 500 billion euros, then there should be a significant price increase due to high demand and limited supply capacity. Therefore, the actual purchasing power of this program would be close to 200 billion euros rather than 500 billion euros. The same logic applies to defense spending.
In conclusion, the program accelerates Germany’s economic decline in both defence and infrastructure.
Joachim Nikolaus Steinhöfel is one of the most well-known German lawyers specializing in media law. In 2024 he won 16 of the 16 cases against the German government, including before the Federal Constitutional Court. His book, “Die Digitale Bevormundung” (“The Digital Paternalism”), which was released last year, was a national bestseller.
