1. Controversial issue of special assets in the Bundestag


2. Heavy war equipment for Kiev


3. Cabinet wants to decide on relief package




4. Cloudy spring


projection 5. Construction summit and warning of "illusory goal"


6. Poland


's government in distress 7. FAZ congress with Ursula von der Leyen





1. Controversial issue of special assets in the Bundestag

Rebecca Boucsein

Editor on duty at FAZ.NET.

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It is an expensive and controversial project: the federal government wants to spend 100 billion euros to upgrade the armed forces in the shortest possible time.

But the Union is threatening to block the project.

Improvement

: "We are still a long way from an agreement," said CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz also saw a need for further clarification.

He had repeatedly formulated conditions for approval by the Union.

Among other things, he demanded that the 100 billion euros be used exclusively for upgrading the Bundeswehr, that two percent of gross domestic product be spent on defense on a permanent basis and that a repayment plan be presented for the new debts.

“Strange”:

The traffic light must change the Basic Law for the spending project, which is to be financed with loans without taking the debt brake into account – for this it needs a two-thirds majority in the Bundestag.

And that is only possible with the approval of the opposition.

SPD parliamentary group leader Dirk Wiese accused Merz of party tactical maneuvers.

The CDU leader must "give more thought to what a reliable role for the opposition in Germany, appropriate to the serious security situation, could look like," Wiese told the Funke newspapers.

Rejection:

Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) and his government must be prepared for a tough debate.

The left also rejects the special fund.

The traffic light parties wanted to give the rearmament “constitutional status”.

The left will reject this in both the Bundestag and the Bundesrat, said parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch.

First of all, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) will answer questions from MPs at noon.

It should again be about the arms deliveries to Ukraine.

more on the subject

2. Heavy War Machines for Kyiv

Germany wants to support Ukraine with heavy weapons in the defensive war against Russia.

The Bundestag is to vote on Thursday on the applications of the traffic light groups and the Union for arms deliveries.

Tanks and training:

Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) announced on Tuesday in Ramstein, Rhineland-Palatinate, that anti-aircraft tanks would be delivered and that Ukrainian soldiers would be trained on German soil.

The armaments group Krauss-Maffei Wegmann thus receives the green light to sell so-called Gepard tanks from former Bundeswehr stocks.

Very close:

The factions of the traffic light government and the CDU/CSU opposition have meanwhile submitted their drafts for a Bundestag resolution on arms deliveries.

Now the traffic light factions are also demanding heavy weapons for Ukraine.

According to SPD parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich and CSU regional group leader Alexander Dobrindt, the two applications are close together.

It would be best if the government and the Union could get a joint application for the vote on Thursday, it said.