Alemania y los frugales rechazan de plano la propuesta española para el presupuesto europeo

Germany and the frugal bloc reject out of hand the Spanish proposal for the European budget, recalls Wagner's still resounding call from Brussels when discussing public finances. Germany backed "expansive austerity" during the Great Recession, has made no reforms in the past two decades, and is in the midst of a model crisis. Germany underinvested, put the debt brake in the Constitution, and obsessed over the trade surplus for years with that mix of ordoliberalism and neomercantilism that explains much of its current problems.

Germany is back on its own turf: Christian-democrat Chancellor Friedrich Merz, popular at home, has led the strong response to the Spanish proposals for a more ambitious European budget. Merz pronounced a loud and clear "no", reminiscent of Angela Merkel's during the Great Crisis, to the possibility of having a more ambitious budget for 2028-2034 with an extra margin for spending on priorities (defense and competitiveness) if the vice president Carlos Cuerpo's proposal to restructure the interest payments of the Next Generation Funds comes to fruition.

That miracle of bread and fish would give a 70 billion euro cushion to avoid asking for more contributions from the partners and avoid impossible debates on own resources. "In a more dangerous and uncertain world, a strong Europe must be willing to take bold decisions", begins Germany's response to the Spanish proposal. To Germans, the translation of the phrase "bold decisions" was and remains cutting the budget.