It is more than understandable that Germany (and its next government) must react to the present developments regarding US politics and the Ukraine. The breakdown of the front in Kursk is, by the way, an alarming signal for much worse things to come. The management of intensive military help must – after years of ignorance of the Putler’s plans by the once major parties CDU/CSU and the SPD – occur and work on breathtakingly short timescales.

However, why should the party “Bündnis 90/Die Grünen” this week vote for a package of 500 (American) billion Euros regarding the renewal of Germany’s deteriorated infrastructure? And participate in a risky consent to something that our German constitutional court might block in the end?

Regarding military threats, Europe and Germany have in a way to face an emergency situation – at least in the Ukraine. A situation, which one could have expected, but which was ignored by the German government on the long-term strategic level of politics since 2008.

Now, the threats are imminent, due to the short-sighted politics in the last decade of all those conservatives (with few exceptions like N. Röttgen) who these days react with almost panic on the political scene in Germany. But, without doubts, there were some developments out of the control of European governments. And this provides a relatively solid base regarding constitutional concerns. But, even regarding defense the spending of 400 billion Euros should cover aspects like civil defense and cybersecurity. Topics which the present plans do not cover explicitly.

However, with respect to investments which have been blocked by “black zero” budgets of the German conservatives for over a decade, no one can speak of an unexpected emergency. The present state of the German infrastructure is the result of calculated politics – with a disastrous outcome denied by the Merkel government (including the SPD) over a decade and in particular by the FDP during the last 3 years.

It was the green party who has asked for an ordered rebuild of Germany’s infrastructure for longer than a decade now – more precisely a rebuild in combination with modern ecological and energy saving standards. Most of the time they got a NO from the old parties. And some steps which even the conservatives had agreed upon – like building more modern gas power plants and a modern flexibly controllable power grid – have not been taken and realized, but have instead been blocked by conservatives on the level of federal states up to this very day today.

Without doubt, Germany and its citizens must leave their comfort zone. And without doubt we need to spend a lot of money to build a modern infrastructure including an overdue digitization on all levels of our governmental institutions. However, regarding our infrastructure, these investments must be backed by a solid political discussion and decision process. This process must include the usual parliamentary steps. In particular when debts require a necessary change of the constitution. In contrast to military armament and help for Ukraine we have some time regarding our infrastructure.

In addition, the following must be said very clearly:

Over many years the green party, whose consent is suddenly so vital, had to tolerate a public political bashing by leading representatives of the conservatives on a very personal level. This kind of bashing culminated in the middle of last week in Bavaria. It was a shameful bashing by conservatives, who have disregarded and viciously fought against the necessary investments by the state, a bashing by political leaders who willingly created Germany’s dependencies on Russian gas against the warning of the green party. This behavior of the conservatives, especially in Bavaria, can only be called “wretched”. (As a well known physics professor rightly said in a political discussion panel on TV last week.) Now, the bashed and humiliated are expected to vote for a state debt of 500 billion for “suddenly” inevitable investments in infrastructure. And they are expected to support a politically irregular and juridically risky process.

My answer would be: NO.

All of the probably necessary sums for a infrastructure rebuild in Germany should be discussed in depth and should pass a regular parliamentary process. And those who have not done anything for years should now explain in detail why and for what the money on the named scales must be spent. And what the sustainable “strategy” behind the spending is.

Today, my personal opinion was unexpectedly backed up by a German newspaper dedicated to economical questions. Before I spend more words: Read the following article on the net as long as it is publicly available.

Article in the newspaper “Wirtschaftswoche” on the plans of the coming Merz government. The article has the freely translated title “Habeck to the power of three“: