Germany's 2027 budget: record €561 billion and a mountain of debt
After nearly 16 hours of talks, the Bundestag Budget Committee approved Germany’s 2027 draft at 5:55 a.m. Friday. Lawmakers from the CDU, CSU and SPD voted in favor; the Greens, Left Party and AfD voted against. A full Bundestag vote is scheduled for 27 November.
Federal spending is planned at about €561 billion ($620 billion), with a €123 billion revenue shortfall to be covered by borrowing. Special multi-year funds for defense and infrastructure, approved in 2025, sit on top of that. Counting new 2027 debt, total borrowing would exceed €210 billion—the Federal Republic’s second-highest level after €215.4 billion in 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Green lawmaker Sebastian Schäfer and Dietmar Bartsch of the Left Party called it a gigantic mountain of debt, untrustworthy and irresponsible toward future generations.
The draft reflects overlapping pressures: Russia’s war against Ukraine, a faltering economy, an aging population, crumbling infrastructure and the energy transition. More than half of the debt is earmarked for security and defense. By 2027 the war will be in its sixth year; as of the end of June 2026, Berlin estimated overall support for Ukraine at about €100 billion and said political, financial, humanitarian, civil and military aid would continue for as long as necessary. The defense budget is set to rise to just under €110 billion in 2027, about €27 billion more than the previous year, plus spending from the Bundeswehr special fund. The largest single item remains the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, above €200 billion: basic income support for job seekers is targeted for cuts, while old-age pensions keep rising as people born in the 1960s retire after birth rates nearly halved in the early 1970s.
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