German opposition leader Friedrich Merz, Olaf Scholz’s conservative rival, is the favorite for the new chancellor after the collapse of Germany’s ruling coalition and promises a rightward shift on migration as well as a return to traditional values. His persistence seems to be paying off: now nearly 69, this perennial conservative hope long overlooked by former chancellor Angela Merkel has already launched an election campaign for the snap elections that seem inevitable in Germany.
And hopes that the elections will be held as soon as possible. On Thursday, Merz called on Social Democrat Scholz for parliament to vote on the government’s confidence as early as next week and not wait until January. “We simply cannot afford to have a government without a majority for several months,” said the head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In the latest barometer by public broadcaster ZDF, this largely unloved veteran of the political scene received 48 percent support for leading Europe’s largest economy, compared to 37 percent support for the current chancellor.
A MILLIONAIRE
Friedrich Merz is a pilot in his spare time and has two private jets. He finally took over the leadership of the CDU in January 2022 after his party lost the parliamentary elections, following two previous unsuccessful attempts in 2018 and 2020. Since then, he has worked to turn his party to the right , after the centrism under Merkel, and is trying to clean up the image of the man who is motivated only by the desire to take revenge on the former chancellor.
In 2002, Merkel dismissed him from the important post of president of the Club of Deputies, therefore he retired from politics in 2009 and moved to the finance sector as a lawyer in a large business company, this father of three children with him a lawyer, won influential positions in large companies, which includes BlackRock, one of the largest asset managers in the world. The millionaire, who is called arrogant, is known for mood swings and sarcasm. But “Friedrich Merz is currently the CDU’s answer to AfD’s success,” the weekly Die Zeit concluded recently.
“SOCIAL TOURISM”
He does not think there should be an equal number of men and women in his government and on migration policy he rejects the legacy of Angela Merkel, who during the great migrant crisis in 2015 opened Germany’s doors to hundreds of thousands of Afghans and Syrians. He advocates systematic deportations of rejected asylum seekers and criminals and cuts to migrant aid.
While ruling out any government alliance with the AfD, Friedrich Merz does not hesitate to use similar rhetoric. After the youth attack on emergency services in Berlin in late 2022, Merz described the attackers as “little shepherds” from the “Arab area” who “actually have no business in Germany”. Merz called Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian occupation practicing “social tourism” whose sole purpose is to benefit from German services, but he later apologized.
HELP FOR UKRAINE
Friedrich Merz is, however, one of the most ardent supporters of German military aid to Kiev. Economically, he maintains a liberal position, close to the FDP party, with which he shares his commitment to the controversial “debt curb”, a mechanism that limits new debts, but also the country’s investment capacity. Merz was a member of the European Parliament from 1989 to 1994 and presents himself as a staunch European and an ardent defender of Franco-German motoring.
