Friedrich Merz, Germany's prospective chancellor, has pledged significant investment in security and infrastructure.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergGermany Readies to Finally Lead Europe, If Merz Can Pull It Off
Prospective chancellor’s legacy already hangs in the balance as spending push gets underway.
With Europe experiencing its most devastating war since 1945 and President Donald Trump ripping up the transatlantic alliance, Germany is preparing to abandon decades of caution and step into the breach.
Plans announced by election-winner Friedrich Merz for hundreds of billions of euros in infrastructure spending and the buildup of the kind of German military muscle not seen since the Cold War have buoyed markets across Europe and piled expectations on his chancellorship before it’s even begun.