Germany’s Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, approved on Friday plans for a spending splurge that aims to revive growth in Europe’s largest economy and scale up its armed forces, clearing the final hurdle for the historic fiscal policy shift.
The vote in the Bundesrat, which represents Germany’s 16 states, was the last major hurdle the package had to clear before being signed into law, ending decades of fiscal conservatism in Europe’s largest economy.
The legislation, which creates a €500 billion fund to spend on infrastructure and eases strict borrowing rules to allow higher spending on defense, passed the Bundestag lower house on Tuesday.
Germany’s center-right CDU/CSU alliance and center-left SPD, which are in coalition talks after last month’s election, pushed the package through the outgoing parliament to prevent it from being blocked by a larger number of far-left and far-right lawmakers in the next Bundestag, which convenes on March 25.
The package has also garnered strong backing from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, who hailed the decision as fantastic news.
However, according to critics, including the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as well as the center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP), the package is going against the country’s economic success and could lead to a “catastrophe.”
The legislation, which creates a €500 billion fund to spend on infrastructure and eases strict borrowing rules to allow higher spending on defense, passed the Bundestag lower house on Tuesday.
Germany’s center-right CDU/CSU alliance and center-left SPD, which are in coalition talks after last month’s election, pushed the package through the outgoing parliament to prevent it from being blocked by a larger number of far-left and far-right lawmakers in the next Bundestag, which convenes on March 25.
The package has also garnered strong backing from EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, a former German defense minister, who hailed the decision as fantastic news.
However, according to critics, including the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as well as the center-right Free Democratic Party (FDP), the package is going against the country’s economic success and could lead to a “catastrophe.”
