This is CBS Eye on the World.

Here's John Batchelor.

Berlin, Judy Dempsey, a senior scholar for the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace,

to help us understand the importance of Oliver Schultz and Friedrich

Merz's initiative to bypass the debt break imposed in Germany after the great recession

earlier in this century and spend an enormous amount of infrastructure, roads and tunnels and communication,

all that has been slighted these many decades, so that German trains no longer run on time,

shocking detail, as they did in the 1980s when I rode them, and also defense.

Judy, a very good day to you. The intention here is to

avoid the crack up that happened under the Schultz government and to spend money judiciously

for infrastructure and for defense. These are two different components of Mr. Merritt's plans.

Is are both equally popular?

Is defense popular in Germany?

I can't tell from the headlines because I have to see through the filter of London.

Good evening, John.

Thank you, as ever, for having me on your show.

Defense is not unpopular.

It's not hugely popular,

but the public is supporting the spending of defense because they realize the whole peace dividend

gained after the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 is over. And they have seen what Russia

has been doing systematically over the past 15 years, further than Georgia, eastern Ukraine, Ukraine and other areas.

I think the public is on board, and I think the incoming Chancellor, Friedrich Merz,

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