Germany’s Bundestag, or Lower House of Parliament, passed a historic bill allowing it to sidestep its strict rules on debt to spend big on defence and infrastructure. Why is this move a big deal? And why does its timing matter?

Merz’s CDU/CSU and their likely future coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), plan to exempt defence spending from Germany’s strict debt rules and to set up a 500-billion-euro ($545-billion) fund for infrastructure investments over 12 years.