Under Germany's constitution, Merz needs a two-thirds majority to get the changes passed. With the support of the Greens and Social Democrats, he should succeed. Urgent motions by both the AfD and the Left to challenge next week's sessions of the outgoing parliament failed at the constitutional court on Friday, enabling the vote to go ahead.

German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz announced Friday his conservatives had struck a deal with the Greens on massively boosting defense

The party said they would not support the conservative chancellor-in-waiting’s paradigm-changing plan to invest massively in defense and infrastructure.

BERLIN - 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.

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,

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.