Overview
- SPD leaders call for a comprehensive rewrite with an "investment booster," pointing to the coalition agreement and warning against an investment freeze.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz reiterates that further borrowing is off the table, saying Germany's debt capacity has been reached.
- The CDU pushes a "hard" debt brake and argues soaring expenditures, not the rule itself, are the core problem, echoing a Stuttgart party resolution.
- Coalition leaders from the SPD and the Union are set to meet at the Chancellery on Wednesday night to discuss budget policy and competitiveness, with the debt-brake dispute on the agenda.
- An expert commission charged with options remains far from consensus before its end‑March target, and any Basic Law change would need a two‑thirds majority the government lacks, though the Left has signaled support.