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East German Voters Complicate Merz Plan to Boost Ukraine Defense

East German Voters Complicate Merz Plan to Boost Ukraine Defense

Bloomberg01-03-2025

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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