Merz proposes extra spending on defense and economy

Germany's likely next chancellor Friedrich Merz said that his centre-right CDU/CSU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) would propose hundreds of billions in extra spending on defense and the economy.

Merz tells a press conference that as part of talks between the two parties on forming a government they would bring proposals to Parliament for "a special fund to the size of 500 billion euros for the next ten years" for economic development and also to exempt more defense spending from Germany's constitutionally enshrined "debt brake."