The move is rare enough to be highlighted. For his first address to the Bundestag since being elected chancellor on May 6, the conservative Friedrich Merz thanked his predecessor, the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, who has returned to being an MP. "Your reaction to the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine showed the way, and it was historic. We thank you for it today," declared Merz on Wednesday, May 14, after having blamed Scholz during the election campaign for all the country's ills.

On February 27, 2022, a few days after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Scholz had indeed predicted that the world was entering "a new era," announcing in a historic speech a resumption of military spending. Merz intends to make the German Army "the most powerful conventional army in Europe," he announced Wednesday at the Bundestag podium, and "the federal government will provide all the financial means that the Bundeswehr needs" to achieve this goal. "This is only fair for the most populous and powerful country in Europe. It is also what our friends and partners expect from us. More than that, they demand it," he insisted.

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