Germany’s Landmark Spending Bill Wins Final Lawmaker Backing

Germany’s move to unlock hundreds of billions of euros in debt-financed defense and infrastructure spending passed its final legislative hurdle on Friday when lawmakers in the upper house of parliament in Berlin approved the measures.

An alliance of Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz’s conservatives, the Social Democrats and the Greens rammed the unprecedented investment package through the lower house on Tuesday and together controlled enough votes in the Bundesrat, where Germany’s 16 federal states are represented, to ensure its backing there too.