Such a plan would mark a step-change in Germany’s traditionally conservative approach to public borrowing. Berlin in 2009 enshrined a debt brake in its constitution, which limits government borrowing and keeps the structural deficit at 0.35 per cent of GDP.

Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany's CDU/CSU parliamentary bloc, is set to lead the next government after his party came first in recent elections.

The first step towards Mr Merz being effective on the European stage is for him to forge a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats at home, a task expected to take several more weeks. But the agreement announced on March 4th was startling in its ambition.

BERLIN—Friedrich Merz is the clear winner of the German election ... task of turning around a German economy that has barely grown since before the Covid-19 pandemic and is likely to shrink for the third year in a row. He has pledged to cut immigration ...

Results this morning indicate that Friedrich Merz's center-right Christian Democrats ... Schmitz has covered Germany's levelheaded management of the COVID-19 pandemic, the rise of right-wing nationalist politics in Poland and creeping Chinese government ...

Germany’s mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won the country’s national election, ensuring that Ukraine has an even stronger supporter in the European Union’s largest country and

Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz plans to free Germany from the fiscal straitjacket that former leader Angela Merkel had locked her country into for more than a decade, a move that will revolutionize public finances and pave the way for Europe’s most powerful economy to bulk up the region’s defense.

Center-right opposition leader Friedrich Merz claimed victory in Germany’s national election on Sunday after exit polls showed his bloc in the lead.

German voters cast their ballots in Sunday's election, with opposition leader Friedrich Merz claiming ... restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and support for Ukraine after Russia's full ...

BERLIN — Germany's mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won the ... including responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The election took place seven months earlier than originally planned ...

German voters cast their ballots in Sunday's election, with opposition leader Friedrich Merz claiming ... restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic and support for Ukraine after Russia's full ...

BERLIN — Germany's mainstream conservatives led by Friedrich Merz won the country ... including responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. The election took place seven months earlier than originally ...