Germany's likely next governing parties seek looser debt rules for more defense spending

The prospective partners in Germany’s next government said Tuesday that they will seek to loosen the nation’s rules on running up debt to allow for higher defense spending.

They said they also will seek to set up a huge 500 billion euro ($533 billion) fund to finance spending on Germany’s infrastructure over the next 10 years.

Center-right election winner Friedrich Merz, who is trying to put together a coalition government with the center-left Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, said the two sides will propose exempting spending of more than 1% of gross domestic product on defense from rules that limit the government’s ability to borrow money.