The financial package of the Union and SPD is: What you need to know

The top of the Union, SPD and Greens have agreed after long discussions: the billion -dollar package for defense and infrastructure is said to come. The possible next government of the Union and the SPD has thus overcome an important hurdle. But the money will only be secured in the coming week.

Partially. Defense expenditure of more than one percent of gross domestic product (GDP) will be excluded from the debt brake in the future. Union faction leader Friedrich Merz (CDU) explained after the settlement on Friday, so that only around 45 billion euros falled below the index of debt in the Basic Law. But not all beyond.

The Greens were able to negotiate the concept of defense spending in the negotiations with the SPD and the Greens. According to Merz, this also includes funds for civil and population protection, intelligence services and the support of states that are contrary to international law. The Greens were unable to assert themselves with the demand to highlight the threshold for the exception of the debt brake from one to 1.5 percent of the economic output.

Unlike the federal government, the federal states have so far not been allowed to take out any loans after the debt brake. You should also have the opportunity to accept up to 0.35 percent of economic output on debts every year. “For all countries, these are currently around 16 billion euros,” said Merz. The question was undisputed in the negotiations with the Greens, which are represented in a number of country governments.

As planned by the Union and the SPD, there should be a special fund for investments in infrastructure of 500 billion euros. It is said to run for over twelve years – which results on average a good 41 billion euros per year. The Greens were able to reach two concessions here: all investments must therefore be made. The Greens had previously feared that the Union and the SPD could use the money to outsource expenditure and thus make room for election gifts such as the mother’s pension or lower taxes for gastronomy.

In addition, the Greens of Union and SPD received the assurance that 100 billion euros flow from the special fund into the climate and transformation funds (KTF). From the KTF, the climate -friendly conversion of the German economy is particularly promoted. On Thursday, Merz initially only offered the Greens “up to 50 billion euros” for the KTF. After setting with the Greens, Merz said in the Union faction session that negotiations with the Greens were “the toughest chunk”.

Merz said he assumed that Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) will now also release the long -demanded additional arms aids of three billion euros for the Ukraine attacked by Russia. There were corresponding signals from the Chancellery. There had been long conflicts before the Bundestag election.

The state gets fresh money by issuing bonds on the capital market. With the purchase of a government bond, an investor lends money to the state and gets interest. In the long run, the loan must be repaid – unlike private individuals, this can be moved far into the future. This is how long the state has to pay interest from its households.

The plans could already have consequences for house builders, for example. Immediately after the announcement, the building interest rates rose – this is related to the return of federal bonds. It is not possible to predict seriously whether the effect continues.

The Green Group Chairman Katharina Dröge said that she and her co-faction leader Britta Haßelmann had made it in the negotiations with the CDU, CSU and SPD “that the money would be steered in the right direction”. Union faction leader Merz was satisfied with the negotiated. SPD parliamentary group leader Lars Klingbeil is now expecting a “powerful push for Germany”. The package will bring the country forward for years, if not decades.

But the two possible coalition partners, Union and SPD, also have difficult conversations in the house. Because the fact that the infrastructure money has to flow into additional projects must be found for everything else in the normal household-and probably save in some places. Negotiating that will not be easy.

AfD and Left Party have sharply criticized the agreement. “100 billion euros from the debt package are burned for climate ideological projects,” AfD boss Alice Weidel wrote on Friday with X. For the CDU boss Friedrich Merz, “generations must pay expensive”.

The party leader of the left, Ines Schwerdtner, said again that the compromise helps the AfD. Now a central mistake of the traffic light government is repeated, “namely climate protection and upgrading without social compensation,” she told the Funke newspapers. “This will fail and even more people drive into the arms of the AfD.” Schwerdtner called on the Greens deputies not to agree to the compromise. “It’s not too late yet,” she said.

According to Merz, the constitutional changes should be decided by the Bundestag on Tuesday. However, the majorities for this are less secure than usual because many MPs from the Union, SPD and Greens exit from the Bundestag and therefore could therefore feel less bound to the usual faction discipline.

In the new parliament, which is constituted on March 25, the Union, SPD and Greens no longer have the necessary two -thirds majority. Therefore, the time to say goodbye to the financial package with the old Bundestag.

The Federal Council could then decide on Friday – here too, a two -thirds majority is necessary for a decision. This is also not yet certain, since countries can only agree if their government coalitions have found a common line.