{"id":35154,"date":"2025-03-05T20:02:24","date_gmt":"2025-03-05T20:02:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/the-guardian-view-on-merzs-u-turn-on-debt-germany-responds-to-the-signs-of-the-times-editorial\/"},"modified":"2025-03-05T20:02:24","modified_gmt":"2025-03-05T20:02:24","slug":"the-guardian-view-on-merzs-u-turn-on-debt-germany-responds-to-the-signs-of-the-times-editorial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/the-guardian-view-on-merzs-u-turn-on-debt-germany-responds-to-the-signs-of-the-times-editorial\/","title":{"rendered":"The Guardian view on Merz\u2019s u-turn on debt: Germany responds to the signs of the times | Editorial"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The chancellor-elect\u2019s proposals for gamechanging spending on defence and infrastructure are the right response to a new era<\/p>\n<p>Three days after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, created a \u00a3100bn special fund to modernise Germany\u2019s armed forces. Vladimir Putin\u2019s aggression, he <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bundesregierung.de\/breg-de\/aktuelles\/regierungserklaerung-von-bundeskanzler-olaf-scholz-am-27-februar-2022-2008356\">told<\/a> a stunned Bundestag in explanation, meant that Europe was living through a <em>Zeitenwende<\/em>, or turning point.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Scholz was right. But it has taken the return of Donald Trump to the White House to lay bare the full scale of the emerging threat to European values, security and economic interests. For leaders across the continent, the dawning realisation of what Trump 2.0 means for the transatlantic alliance constitutes a second historic moment of jeopardy and decision.<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/tone\/letters\"> letters<\/a> section, please <a href=\"mailto:guardian.letters@theguardian.com?body=Please%20include%20your%20name,%20full%20postal%20address%20and%20phone%20number%20with%20your%20letter%20below.%20Letters%20are%20usually%20published%20with%20the%20author%27s%20name%20and%20city\/town\/village.%20The%20rest%20of%20the%20information%20is%20for%20verification%20only%20and%20to%20contact%20you%20where%20necessary.\">click here<\/a>.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/commentisfree\/2025\/mar\/05\/the-guardian-view-on-merzs-u-turn-on-debt-germany-responds-to-the-signs-of-the-times\">Continue reading&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The chancellor-elect\u2019s proposals for gamechanging spending on defence and infrastructure are the right response to a new era Three days after Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, created a \u00a3100bn special fund to modernise Germany\u2019s armed forces. Vladimir Putin\u2019s aggression, he told a stunned Bundestag in explanation, meant that &#8230; <a title=\"The Guardian view on Merz\u2019s u-turn on debt: Germany responds to the signs of the times | Editorial\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/05\/the-guardian-view-on-merzs-u-turn-on-debt-germany-responds-to-the-signs-of-the-times-editorial\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about The Guardian view on Merz\u2019s u-turn on debt: Germany responds to the signs of the times | Editorial\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-35154","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35154","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35154"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35154\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news2shorts.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}