Friedrich Merz, head of the CDU/CSU, announced the need for cost-cutting across all government levels while presenting a contentious 500 billion euro financial package. This package, which seeks to relax constitutional debt limits, aims to boost defense and infrastructure investments. Supported by the SPD and potentially the Greens, it requires a two-thirds majority in both Bundestag and Bundesrat. However, legal challenges from members of various parties threaten to postpone the planned vote as they scramble for public discussion time.
'We will have to cut costs on the federal level, on state level and in local communities,' Merz told German public broadcaster ARD. 'The margins have not become bigger.'
The landmark financial package has been highly controversial, also because it includes a relaxation of Germany's constitutional limits on debt.
The package needs a two-third majority in both Germany's lower house, the Bundestag, and the upper house, the Bundesrat, to pass.
After initially objecting to the package, Germany's environmentalist Greens are expected to vote in its favor due to 100 billion being allocated to fighting climate change.
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