There are two options for passing a resolution on the “Bundeswehr special fund” in the Bundestag.
The Chancellor proposed an amendment to the Basic Law, which has already been applied for.
Olaf Scholz wanted to kill several birds with one stone.
The Union faction secures him a majority that he may not have himself, and the debt brake is circumvented.
The budget remains untouched, the traffic light can pretend that nothing has happened.
The second possibility, which SPD faction leader Rolf Mützenich is now bringing into play, is a decision with a simple majority, which, however, would have to take the debt brake into account.
But that would have the advantage for the traffic light coalition that they would no longer have to heed the demands of the opposition.
Above all, Mützenich's initiative is directed against the opposition leader's announcement that he would only allow as many CDU/CSU deputies to agree as the traffic light factions need to change the Basic Law, i.e. a two-thirds majority.
Friedrich Merz is touching on the free mandate, but is unhinging Scholz's plan not to necessarily have to close his own ranks.
Mützenich would have to ensure unity, which he obviously can't do.
Too many Greens and SPD MPs reject NATO's two percent target, would rather spend the 100 billion euros on development aid than on tanks and find it annoying to be dependent on people who yesterday they considered to be warmongers counted.
If the traffic light coalition waived the amendment to the Basic Law in order to be able to turn the special assets into soft diapers, that would have a curious side effect.
In order to comply with the debt brake, Mützenich would have to explain that it was only now, after the second Russian attack on Ukraine, that he realized that the Bundeswehr was an acute emergency.
That would be an involuntary demonstration of the arts of displacement.
And for the fact that the coalition's motto should be: dare to persevere more!