Katharina Droege is the co-chair of the Greens and she is calling for her members not to back Merz’s spending plans in her latest remarks today. She says that “if the CDU and SPD want our backing, they must show that investment goes towards the climate and country”.
The euro has fallen on the comments here with EUR/USD down from around 1.0860 earlier to 1.0830 levels now. I highlighted the risk surrounding the matter earlier here. As much as the Greens are defending their position and wanting to squeeze as much as they can from Merz’s government, the CDU/CSU and SPD alliance are relatively relaxed. They said earlier that “in the end, however, they (Greens) will agree out of a sense of political responsibility because they themselves have always called for such a special fund”.
As a reminder, the discussions and negotiations in parliament will take place on 13 March with a planned vote on 18 March for the time being.