About a week after the security policy U-turn by the coalition, opposition leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) is still waiting for the proposals for a special fund for Bundeswehr equipment to be specified.

The CDU leadership is meeting at the weekend in St. Ingbert, Saarland, to discuss the situation.

Merz said on Friday that everyone in Germany was surprised by the scope and brutality of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The weapons aid from Germany and other countries is correct.

Peter Carstens

Political correspondent in Berlin

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Merz said on Norddeutscher Rundfunk that if, for example, Ukrainian nuclear power plants were hit directly, the effects would also affect the NATO countries: "Then we are under immediate threat, that would also be a new level of escalation in which NATO would then have to think about whether that wasn't the case also constitutes an attack on one's own territory.

But thank God we haven't gotten that far yet."

However, according to Merz, there could be a situation “in which NATO then also has to make decisions to stop Putin.

Again, thank God we're not there yet, but the attacks are taking on forms that are almost compelling."

Merz: Need new procurement methodology

Merz said that a waiver of gas and coal deliveries would also be an option, even if that would be difficult for households and industry in Germany.

There must now be texts for the amendment to the Basic Law, “we will take a close look at it”.

The permanent increase in the defense budget and a special fund of 100 billion euros have been announced.

He, Merz, says that there must also be a "change in procurement methodology".

Procuring equipment often fails not because of money, but because of “infinitely long planning processes and the subsequent lawsuits.

That must also be changed.”

The Union faction said that from the Union's point of view, a special fund must be 100 percent there for the Bundeswehr.

The parliamentary director of the Union faction Thorsten Frei said: "The Greens already want to soften the goal of improved defensiveness, even though the war in Europe is still raging, even though Putin's propaganda swears Russia into a long and intensive debate with the West."

According to the CDU politician, it was "incomprehensible why the Greens should go into reverse five days after the Chancellor had made the right decision."

Astonishment at statements made by Kretschmer

In the Union, it is being observed how friction is growing in the SPD and Greens parliamentary groups.

However, there are also tensions within the ranks of the Union.

The deputy CDU chairman, Saxony's Prime Minister Michael Kretschmer, caused astonishment with statements that focused more on a prosperous, peaceful future with Russia than Moscow's attack on the neighboring country.

Kretschmer had said that the crisis should not be fueled any further.

"We will only live in peace if we live in peace with Russia." The Russian ambassador and left-wing politician Sahra Wagenknecht had praised these statements.

MEP Dennis Radtke (CDU) wrote: "If Wagenknecht and the Russian embassy like your statements, then you took a wrong turn." A reasonable relationship with Russia can only exist "when the killings in Ukraine come to an end".