East German Voters Complicate Merz Plan to Boost Ukraine Defense
Christian Görke isn't against Germany easing its borrowing rules, he just doesn't want 'a pure economic stimulus for the arms industry.' The veteran Left Party lawmaker is part of a new class of parliamentarians that will arrive in the Bundestag next month to form a powerful opposition against incoming Christian Democratic chancellor Friedrich Merz.
Merz ran on a promise to invest more in defense. To do that, he'll likely need to change Germany's constitutional limits on borrowing, only possible with a two-thirds majority vote in parliament. But the Left Party, along with the far-right AfD, are adamantly opposed to increasing military spending in support of Ukraine. Combined they have 216 out of a total of 630 seats.
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