Lars Klingbeil is Germany's finance minister and vice-chancellor. He is co-leader of the Social Democrats (SPD). On June 24th 2025 he unveiled plans for a debt-funded €500bn infrastructure programme and a giant rearmament scheme, proposing to borrow €850bn over the current parliament, with annual deficits potentially exceeding 3% of GDP. He said Germany would reach the new NATO defence-spending target of 3.5% of GDP by 2029, a full six years before the deadline. He argued that balanced budgets were useless if "bridges and schools rot and the Bundeswehr is neglected." He has told his SPD colleagues to recapture the spirit of "Agenda 2010", a controversial set of welfare and labour reforms passed by an SPD-led government over two decades ago, hoping to bolster those who fear that clinging to outdated welfare rules risks earning the SPD a reputation as a party for the unemployed. He is said to have designs on the chancellorship.
The SPD's position has grown increasingly dire. On March 22nd 2026 the party lost heavily to the CDU in Rhineland-Palatinate, long an SPD stronghold, and barely crossed the 5% threshold in Baden-Württemberg. On March 25th Mr Klingbeil gave a speech aimed mainly at his own party, urging reforms to labour, tax and pension rules to increase working hours, and calling for restraint on spending.
To err is human, to forgive is against company policy.