German conservative leader Friedrich Merz reached an agreement with the Green party on a debt-funded spending package for defense and infrastructure, overcoming a key hurdle ahead of a crunch vote in parliament next week.

An agreement has been reached on plans by German chancellor hopeful Friedrich Merz to massively ramp up public borrowing, a source from the Greens party said on Friday, adding: "We are satisfied."

BERLIN (Reuters) -Germany's Greens vowed to block plans by likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz for a massive increase in state borrowing but left room for compromise on Monday on measures to revamp the military and revive growth in Europe's biggest economy.

The Greens vow to foil the chancellor-in-waiting’s historic plan to invest big in defense and infrastructure. But it may just be a negotiating gambit.

Germany's chancellor-in-waiting and leader of the Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) Friedrich Merz speaks during an extraordinary meeting of the German Bundestag to discuss a €500-billion infrastructure fund and a revamp of borrowing rules aimed at modernizing the military and stimulating economic growth ahead of the formation of a new parliament at end of March,

BERLIN — Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting in a fiery Bundestag debate Thursday urged Green lawmakers to pass constitutional amendments that would unleash up to €1 trillion in new spending to bolster the country’s military and invest in its economy.

Germany’s chancellor-to-be Friedrich Merz has agreed a deal with the Green party to inject hundreds of billions into the country’s military and ageing infrastructure, paving the way for his spending package to be adopted by parliament next week.