The turning point that Putin brought about with his war of aggression against Ukraine is now also being marked in Germany by a constitutional change: the establishment of the "special fund" for the Bundeswehr.
If the Bundesrat also agrees after the Bundestag, the government can spend a hundred billion euros in addition to the existing defense budget in the coming years to equip the armed forces in such a way that they can fulfill their mission of defending the country and the alliance.
In fact, you have to dig deep into your pockets for this.
Not only under Schröder, but also in the Merkel era, German politics was so fixated on the peace dividend that the Bundeswehr degenerated into a poorhouse.
In the end, the army inspector took an oath of disclosure: We're blank.
Who has to pay off the "special fund".
The second rearmament of Germany found a broad majority in the Bundestag.
Putin's criminal war of annihilation makes it difficult even for (former) pacifists to plead for disarmament.
However, the approval of the left in the traffic light coalition was bought with the assurance that no savings would have to be made in favor of rearmament, least of all in social policy, which is currently even more generous than usual. The new tanks will be financed on credit, i.e. at a cost of the next generations;
they are the ones who have to pay off the very special “special fund”.
That wasn't the only toad the Treasury Secretary had to swallow.
The government also had to make use of the exceptional clause in the debt brake.
That excludes Lindner for the next household.
However, the "extraordinary emergency situation" to which the government is now referring could persist or recur - meaning the corona pandemic and the Ukraine war.
Then the moment of truth could also strike for the coalition, which it has avoided with the "special fund".