Traditionally frugal conservatives are upset by Merz’s plans for large costs
The bold move of the future Prime Minister of Germany Friedrich Mertz to alleviate long-standing government spending, won praise internationally, but before today’s beginning of the new Bundestag composition, signs of internal political boomerang appeared.
His conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Bavarian ally – the Christian Social Union (CSU) have long been perceived as guardians of fiscal rigor and their members are amazed at the surprising readiness of Mertz to accept a higher debt.
« Germany Returned »: Mertz secured support in the Bundestag to raise defense costs
- A survey of the Insa, published on Sunday, showed that 73% of all voters and 44% of CDU/CSU supporters feel deceived.
- Support for the group dropped by one point to 27%, while the far -right « Alternative to Germany » (AFD) won one point to 23%.
- This left the difference between the two parties only 4 points, half the difference a month ago when the election was held.
« The CDU/CSU failed to fulfill its election promises with the debt package, » Insa head Herman Binkert told Bild. « Some disappointed voters are targeting AFD. »
Mertz announced his dramatic change in costs – agreed with the likely future coalition partners Social Democrats – just nine days after winning the February 23 election after a campaign in which he promised not to increase costs sharply.
Parliament approved the plans last week, throwing away the decades of fiscal conservatism in the hope of reviving economic growth and increasing military spending for a new era of European collective defense while the United States withdrew from Europe.
Still, the CDU voters are deeply divided by this move and its justification.
« If America no longer helps us, we must defend ourselves, » Jurgen Feden, born in 1944, told Reuters by the end of World War II. « It must be because Russia will not calm down. I do not believe (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, » said Fedensen, a CDU voter for 50 years and before that a hard -branded debt brake, introduced by former CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel, to officially limit state loans.
There is wide public approval for higher costs for the armed forces and defense arising from the changed threat situation for Germany and Europe, Andrea Wolf of the sociological group ForschungsGruppe Wahlen told Reuters.
But the voters’ reaction to the Merz decision will appear in the polls in the coming weeks, Wolf said. « It is very likely that this will cost the support of (CDU/CSS) and Friedrich Merz.
The younger CDU supporters are afraid that the burden of financing the new cost jump will crash on them. For a generation, it has been struggling to climb the residential ladder and fears that future pension and social rights can be at risk.
« I worry that the younger generation will be affected by the extra debt because it will have to be reduced at one point, » said Yanik Viman, a 26-year-old, social worker in the northwestern city of Lemgo.
Prior to the election, Merz said that today’s debts are tomorrow’s tax increases, said Viman, who also heads the CDU’s CDA’s Youth Social Policy Wing.
| A separate study by Forsa, published last week, also showed that the difference between CDU and AFD decreased to only four points. |
« If citizens’ expectations are again disappointed by the new federal government, it cannot be ruled out that AFD will become the strongest party in the next general election not only in the eastern part of the country, but also throughout Germany, » said Manfred Gulner, head of the sociological company Forsa.
