Yeah I’m not gonna pretend to follow German politics much at all, you guys probably have way more insight.Germany, like France, can bypass their defense debt limit by selling government bonds. But, this is an excellent example why a CDU/CSU - SPD government might struggle to last long. While defense may be a secondary matter to the German voters, immigration clearly is. To get over these two hurdles CDU is going to need AfD votes as they did for the last round of immigration reform bills. If they blow it, AfD will likely come out on top in the next election.
My main take though is that I get the sense any of our European allies are freaking the fuck out about what the current Administration is doing, and it may be the trigger they need to start pulling out the stops on things that previously just weren’t enough of a priority to be the priority.
And a big one others have mentioned here is nuclear. No US nuclear umbrella, that could change a lot in them being willing to do things that were previously unthinkable. I wouldn’t be surprised if even Japan (who is culturally allergic to nuclear weapons) is even willing to go there