German leader insists Ukraine aid is not reducing social spending at home

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Wednesday defended his government's financial and military support for Ukraine, rejecting opposition party claims that the aid comes at the expense of social spending at home.

Addressing lawmakers in parliament, Merz said continued support for Ukraine is essential to safeguard peace and security across Europe as Russia's threats intensify. He argued that military assistance to Kyiv does not reduce funds available for domestic priorities.

"Not a single euro flowing to Ukraine is being diverted from social or educational spending in our country. Not a single euro is missing," Merz said. He added that they had introduced an exception to Germany's constitutional debt rule to allow defense-related spending to be financed through additional borrowing.

Merz warned that the danger is concrete rather than theoretical. "We see that Russia's readiness to escalate is rising toward Ukraine, toward our Eastern European neighbors, but also toward our own country," he said.

He slammed the right-wing AfD and the socialist Left Party for downplaying threats and fueling division.

"It is incomprehensible to me how those on the far left and far right continue, to this day, to play down the situation," he said, accusing them of deliberately driving divisions, uncritically spreading disinformation. "One gets the impression you want the chaos because you want to gain party-political advantages from it."

Opposition lawmakers from the AfD and the Left Party have repeatedly argued that billions of euros in support for Ukraine should instead go to domestic priorities such as pensions and infrastructure.

Merz's conservative CDU/CSU alliance is facing pressure as it trails in opinion polls while the right-wing AfD leads. An INSA survey published this week put the AfD at 30%, the CDU/CSU at 18.5%, the environmentalist Greens at 14%, the center-left SPD at 13.5%, and the Left Party at 10%.