Centrist CDU and SDP Social Democrats announce a government agreement in Germany

Germany's centrist conservatives CDU/CSU and center-left Social Democrats SPD on Wednesday announced an agreement to form the next government after several weeks of negotiations.

The highly detailed pact seeks to establish a road map for the next four years. The formations announced a special press conference to detail the agreement on the same day.

The option of a coalition between the country's two main parties was designated by voters as the favored option in the polls. It is the result of a health cordon sanitaire to the alternative right, despite the fact that the latter obtained the second-best result in last February's elections.

Scholz's previous three-party coalition government collapsed in early November due to unbridgeable budget differences between his party, the Greens, and the Free Democratic Party.

The anticipated new government will not face this problem. In response to global upheaval, Merz managed to push through a massive investment plan in early March, worth several hundred billion euros, to rearm and modernize the country—an initiative praised by his European counterparts.

However, the future head of government is being heavily criticized in Germany, even within his own ranks, for reforming the "debt brake," which limits the country's borrowing capacity for military and regional spending, even though he had promised not to touch it.

This especially benefits AfD, which already achieved a record result of over 20% in the legislative elections, becoming the country's second largest party.