German upper house of parliament OKs debt reform, half-trillion fund-OxBig News Network

Germany’s upper house of parliament on Friday passed a reform of the country’s borrowing rules and a 500-billion-euro ($542 billion) fund to revamp its infrastructure and revive Europe’s largest economy.

The constitutional amendment to loosen the so-called debt brake also allows for de-facto unlimited spending on defence and security.

The upper house of parliament, which represents the 16 German states, passed the bill with the necessary two-thirds majority after Tuesday’s vote in the lower house, the Bundestag.

The conservatives and the SPD party, who are in talks to form a centrist coalition after last month’s election, worked to pass the legislation through the outgoing parliament for fear it could be blocked by far-right and far-left lawmakers in the next Bundestag starting March 25.

Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has defended the tight timetable, which angered fringe opposition parties, by pointing to a rapidly changing geopolitical situation.