(13 Mar 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin, Germany – 13 March 2025
1. Wide of German Reichstag building
2. Close of German flag
3. Wide of German parliament
4. Close of outgoing German chancellor Olaf Scholz amongst other minister and lawmakers
5. Mid of cameramen
6. SOUNDBITE (German) Friedrich Merz, CDU leader and likely next German chancellor:
“The constant attacks on our infrastructure, drones, flights over our barracks. A hybrid war that is taking place, which has escalated massively in recent weeks, with insecurities greater than ever before. We must do something now to significantly increase our defense capability, and we must do so quickly and with great foreign and security policy unity.”
6. Mid of photographers
7. Close of AfD co- leader Alice Weidel speaking at parliament
8. Wide of Weidel speaking at parliament
9. SOUNDBITE (German) Alice Weidel, AfD co-leader:
"We are living in historic times. No candidate for the chancellorship has broken as many election promises in such a short time as you, Mr. Merz. You no longer want to reject border controls and certainly not the deportation of those obliged to leave the country. Debt brake – get rid of it, even though it was in your election program. You will go down in history as the gravedigger of the debt brake, which you defended so vehemently during the election campaign.”
10. People attending parliament meeting
11. SOUNDBITE (German) Katharina Dröge, Head of Parliament Group of the Green Party:
“And we are also prepared to agree with you on a reform of the debt brake. This offer stands. And this offer stood all along. But if, in the end, you decide that if you can’t agree with us on a sensible reform of the debt brake, you will then put it in a package with the security spending in this country, then you are gambling with the security of our country.”
12. Mid of cameramen
13. Various of Merz
14. SOUNDBITE: (German) Friedrich Merz, CDU leader and likely next German chancellor:
“Germany must return to the international stage as a capable partner in Europe, NATO and the world.”
15. German Eagle statue
STORYLINE:
Germany’s likely next chancellor urged lawmakers Thursday to exempt some defense spending from the nation’s tight rules on running up debt, an issue of growing urgency as doubts increase about the U.S. commitment to European allies.
The appeal comes amid long-term strains on the debt limits, and the recent shift in U.S. security policy under President Donald Trump, who has demanded that Europe do more for own security, disrupting post-World War II transatlantic relations under which Europe looked to the United States for security guarantees.
Conservative leader Friedrich Merz, who won last month’s German election, is trying to put together a coalition with outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats.
Earlier this month, the two sides said they would seek to loosen Germany’s so-called “debt brake” — which allows new borrowing worth only 0.35% of annual gross domestic product — in order to spend more on defense.
“We must do something now to significantly increase our defense capability, and we must do it quickly and with great unity in foreign and security policy,” Merz told lawmakers on Thursday.
The two sides also want to set up a 500 billion euro ($533 billion) fund, financed by borrowing, to invest in Germany’s creaking infrastructure over the next 10 years and help restore the economy to growth.
Economists say that if passed, this could enable a trillion euros in new borrowing and spending over a decade.
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