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 likely next leader Friedrich Merz said Thursday urgent action was needed to boost the country's under-resourced military and ailing economy, as he defended plans for a spending bonanza during a fiery parliamentary debate.

Germany's outgoing lower house of parliament will hold a special session on Thursday to debate a 500 billion euro fund for infrastructure and sweeping changes to borrowing rules in Europe's largest economy to bolster defence.