Friedrich Merz is facing a lot of criticism in his own camp for the planned billion-euro package. In the EU, however, the CDU candidate for chancellor has met with great approval in many member states for the additional spending on defense and infrastructure agreed with the SPD on Tuesday. „Good for Germany, and good for Europe,“ praised one EU diplomat. Merz will take part in the EPP pre-summit today, while Olaf Scholz will represent Germany at the special summit at 12:30 p.m..