Germany's Merz strikes debt deal to fund defence and infrastructure

Contributing sentiments towards policy:

54% : A provision would exempt defence spending above 1 per cent of GDP from the debt brake rules, allowing Germany to boost spending on its armed forces by an unlimited amount at a time when Europe faces the prospect of losing US guarantees that have underpinned its security since Donald Trump began his second presidential term.
53% : The plan marks a stunning shift in Germany's traditionally conservative approach to public borrowing.
43% : Berlin in 2009 enshrined the debt brake in its constitution, which limits government borrowing and keeps the structural deficit at 0.35 per cent of GDP.
40% : Merz, whose conservative CDU/CSU had campaigned on a stance of opposing debt brake reforms in the lead-up to the February 23 election, has accelerated coalition talks with the SPD since Trump publicly admonished Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House last week.

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