BERLIN (Reuters) -German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz said on Friday he had secured the crucial backing of the Greens for a massive increase in state borrowing, clearing the way for the outgoing parliament to approve the historic deal next week.
Merz's conservatives and the Social Democrats, who are in negotiations to form a government after an election last month, had proposed a 500 billion euro ($544 billion) fund for infrastructure and sweeping changes to borrowing rules to bolster defence and revive growth in Europe's largest economy.
