Berlin, Monday – The second round of soundings between the Union and the SPD has come to a close after over seven hours of negotiations. Participants left the meeting room, located in a building affiliated with the German Bundestag, around 11 pm. As was the case after the first round of soundings on Friday, the participants declined to provide press statements to waiting journalists, a promise of silence from the outside, which has been largely successful so far.
However, it appears that the Bundestag may still convene in its old constellation in the coming week to pass a new special fund for military expenditures, bypassing the debt brake. This could be possible because the new Bundestag has not yet been constituted, although such a move would at least be constitutionally questionable.