German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday defended his government’s pension plans in its 2025 budget proposal, while his defence minister faced hard questions over funding for the military. “The fact that we want to guarantee a stable pension level in Germany is one of the major plans of this government,” said Scholz during the debate on his coalition’s proposed budget in parliament. Opposition leader Friedrich Merz of the centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), however, blasted the budget and accused Scholz’s government of damaging the free market. “The social budget is exploding,” Merz char…