Germany’s would-be next chancellor Friedrich Merz is asking lawmakers to allow the country to put “whatever it takes” into defense and to authorize an enormous fund for investment in its creaking infrastructure.

The prospective next German government's plans to enable higher defense spending by loosening strict debt rules and to set up a huge infrastructure fund that's aimed at boosting Europe's biggest economy cleared their final parliamentary hurdle Friday with approval by the upper house.

Germany's Bundesrat upper house of parliament is set to vote on Friday on a spending splurge aiming to revive growth in Europe's largest economy and scale up the military for a new era of European collective defence.