Germany’s Merz Wants to Create Europe’s Strongest Military

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants to create Europe’s most formidable conventional army as he seeks to counter the rising threat from Russia. “Our friends and partners also expect this from us, indeed, they practically demand it,” Merz told Bundestag lawmakers today.

The plan is said to include raising the annual defense budget to more than €60 billion ($67.4 billion) this year and beyond, a more than 15% increase from 2024. In February, Germany’s top general told us that the country’s armed forces, the Bundeswehr, needs at least 100,000 additional troops on top of the roughly 260,000 it has now.

Merz’s initiative comes as NATO allies have started working on plans to assuage Donald Trump’s demand to spend 5% of GDP on the military. None of the alliance’s 32 members, including the US, currently meet that threshold, and eight of them are below 2%.

A Swiss court ruled that a dozen Credit Suisse bankers were unlawfully stripped of their bonuses when UBS bought its collapsing rival. The decision could set the stage for fresh lawsuits from hundreds more employees over unpaid compensation. In March 2023, the Swiss finance ministry told Credit Suisse to cut bonuses completely for its executive board members and reduce them sharply for other senior executives.