Friedrich Merz, the person favored by early exit polls to be Germany’s subsequent chancellor after elections on Sunday, is a conservative businessman who has by no means been a minister and was compelled out of presidency years in the past in an influence wrestle with Angela Merkel.
The chief of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, Mr. Merz earned his fortune working within the non-public sector earlier than returning to politics at 63.
That enterprise background appealed to many Germans amid the political turbulence bedeviling considered one of Europe’s strongest economies that was prompted, partly, by Germany’s stagnant economy.
Mr. Merz, now 69, was born and nonetheless lives within the Sauerland, a district of western Germany recognized for hills, heavy meals and picturesque nature. It was from there that he was first elected into the European Parliament in 1989 after which the German Parliament in 1994.
Whereas he comes from the identical celebration as Ms. Merkel, the previous chancellor, Mr. Merz — a pugnacious old-school politician — is in some ways her reverse.
He rose by the ranks to steer the Christian Democrats’ parliamentary group, however was ousted by a rising star within the celebration — Ms. Merkel. It was then that Mr. Merz pivoted from politics and began a profitable regulation profession.
He obtained wealthy working as a lawyer and a lobbyist. When Ms. Merkel was on the point of retire, Mr. Merz obtained again into politics. In 2018, when he returned to the political stage, Mr. Merz promised he might stem the rise of the far-right Various for Germany celebration, referred to as the AfD, by shifting his celebration additional proper on key points like migration and crime.
Mr. Merz re-entered Parliament in 2021 and — after two failed makes an attempt — received the celebration management in 2022.
As celebration chief, nonetheless, he made numerous gaffes — like claiming in September 2023 that refugees have been having their enamel redone at taxpayers’ expense whereas common German sufferers have been unable to get appointments. (The pinnacle of the German Dental Affiliation denied this.) And his insistence that he’s only a common member of the center class — regardless of vital private means — has been mocked by some Germans who see him as being divorced from the financial actuality many members of the center class face.
Nonetheless, Mr. Merz managed to coalesce his celebration round him and shift it to a extra conventional conservative posture after Ms. Merkel’s lengthy tenure took the celebration additional to the left. His enterprise expertise is taken into account a power, as he guarantees to revive progress to the German economic system.
As chancellor, as a conservative and dedicated trans-Atlanticist, Mr. Merz could be thought-about a greater match for President Trump than the present Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Mr. Merz can also be anticipated to steer a overseas coverage extra aligned with Mr. Trump’s concepts about Europe’s taking accountability for its personal protection.
Nonetheless, Mr. Merz — who is understood to be assertive and direct, if a bit awkward — pushed again strongly in opposition to Mr. Trump’s newest feedback siding with Russia about Ukraine, in addition to what was seen as interference in Germany’s election by Vice President JD Vance when he criticized Europe for sidelining far-right voters and their events.
Boldness is attribute of Mr. Merz, analysts say, and displays a conviction that Germany have to be extra forcefully engaged in European and international affairs. Mr. Scholz has typically been criticized for his tentativeness and warning, even from inside his personal coalition.
Simply final month, Mr. Merz confirmed his willingness to behave brashly when he introduced a migration measure after which a invoice in Parliament that he knew he might cross solely with the hard-right AfD, regardless of earlier guarantees by no means to work with them. The political maneuver did not go well: It prompted lots of of 1000’s of Germans to take to the streets in protest, dissent inside his celebration and a uncommon public rebuke from Ms. Merkel.
Mr. Merz has vowed to carve out a extra distinguished German position contained in the European Union and NATO, to pursue higher relations with France and Poland, and to take a harder stance in opposition to China, which he has described as a full member of the “axis of autocracies.”
He has additionally promised extra forthright assist for Ukraine’s battle in opposition to Russia — saying, as an illustration, that he would supply Ukraine with Germany’s long-range cruise missile, the Taurus. And Mr. Merz has pledged that Germany will meet and surpass the present NATO goal of two p.c of gross home product being spent on the army for the long run.
In a current foreign-policy speech on the Körber Basis, Mr. Merz, a former member of the European Parliament, promised to offer German management in Europe, which has not been a precedence for Mr. Scholz, and to determine a nationwide safety council within the chancellery.
