GERMANY - Something dramatic, even historic, happened in the Reichstag building in Berlin on February 27th. Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, announced a plan to spend an additional €100 billion ($111 billion) on defence; to support imposing sanctions on Russia (including ones related to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline and SWIFT); to commit to two LNG terminals; to export weapons to Ukraine and to consider acquiring the American-made F-35 as the next generation of nuclear-capable German aircraft. This was a massive and almost complete policy turnaround, with a number of German foreign policy’s sacred cows slaughtered. Having prided themselves on continuity as a central element of German foreign policy for decades, German political elites were stunned. It became apparent that Mr Scholz was not only enjoying the support of his Ampelkoalition, traffic-light coalition, but also that of Germany’s new opposition leader, Friedrich Merz.