German parliament OKs big increase in spending

BERLIN — Germany's parliament approved plans for a massive spending surge on Tuesday, throwing off decades of fiscal conservatism in hopes of reviving economic growth and scaling up military spending for a new era of European collective defense.

The approval in the Bundestag hands conservative leader Friedrich Merz a huge boost, giving the chancellor-in-waiting a windfall of hundreds of billions of euros to ramp up investment after two years of contraction in Europe's largest economy.

Germany and other European nations have been under pressure to shore up their defenses in the face of shifts in US policy, which European leaders fear could leave the continent exposed.