Germany amended its constitution in March 2025 to create a special fund of €50… · @pirrer · TwKit

@pirrer

Germany amended its constitution in March 2025 to create a special fund of €500 billion, about $560 billion, for infrastructure and climate projects to be approved over 12 years. In the first year, the fund was budgeted to pay out €37.2 billion. It actually paid out €24 billion, and €10 billion of that was a transfer into the Climate and Transformation Fund. The states' €8.3 billion share went entirely unpaid that year, because the federal-state agreement wasn't signed until December 11. The 2025 federal budget itself wasn't promulgated until October 2, ending months of provisional spending rules, and took retroactive effect from January 1. This is a country that wrote a borrowing limit into its constitution. In 2009, the Bundestag voted 418 to 109 for the debt brake. Under that rule, new structural federal borrowing was capped at 0.35% of GDP, adjusted for the business cycle, unless an emergency exception was invoked; a 2025 amendment later exempted defense spending above 1% of GDP. In 2014, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble announced that the following year's budget would need no new borrowing, the first time since 1969, and the "black zero" became shorthand for his policy. Public investment stayed low throughout. In 2005, German government investment was 2.2% of GDP; France's was 4.4%. In a 2026 survey by the state-owned development bank KfW, municipalities put their own investment backlog at a record €231.2 billion, about $260 billion. The Rahmede Viaduct on the A45 autobahn got a failing inspection grade in 2011. A strengthening plan, estimated at up to €13 million, was never carried out; in 2014 the decision was made to rebuild instead, and planning dragged on for years. On December 2, 2021, inspectors found that the main girders had deformed, and the bridge was closed that day. It was demolished in May 2023, and the first half of the new bridge opened on December 22, 2025, 14 years after the first failing grade. Money going out isn't always new investment. The Bundesbank says some of the fund's investment was shifted from the regular budget; the government says the fund has raised investment by more than €12 billion. In September 2026, Germany had 2.994 million registered unemployed. On October 19, the eve of the Invest in Germany summit in Berlin, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (@_FriedrichMerz) shared a stage with NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang, and the government signed a letter of intent with NVIDIA (@nvidia) on industrial AI. The same day, the head of Roche's German business said all of its future investment decisions in Germany were on hold, while projects already committed would go ahead.

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