Germany’s €1.3 Trillion Burden Is Becoming Battleground for Merz

Germany’s soul-searching over how to revive its moribund economy is running into a hard truth: a sprawling welfare state is part of the problem.

After loosening the country’s constitutional debt brake and embarking on massive rearmament, the question of how to tackle relentlessly increasing social spending, with its associated burden on employers, is becoming the next bone of contention for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition.