Germany’s Landmark Spending Spree Wins Parliamentary Backing

German lawmakers passed a landmark spending package, taking a major step toward unlocking hundreds of billions of euros in debt financing for defense and infrastructure and heralding the end of decades of budget austerity.

The controversial legislation — pushed by conservative Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz — was approved Tuesday in the lower house of parliament with 512 votes out of a total of 733, comfortably clearing the two-thirds threshold required for changes to the country’s constitutional borrowing rules.