Friedrich Merz has good a chance at become Germany’s next chancellor. As the leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) and the conservative parliamentary group that includes Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU), he will be the bloc’s top candidate, taking on the Social Democrats (SPD) in the February 23 general election. Though Merz has never held government office, opinion polls suggest that he is the favorite in the race.
At the age of 69. Merz would become the oldest person to take office as Germany’s head of government since Konrad Adenauer, who was 73 years old when he was sworn in as the first chancellor of the Federal Republic in 1949.
Merz has had two political lives: one before Angela Merkel came to power as chancellor in 2005 and the second after she exited in 2021. He had slowly withdrawn from politics after Merkel’s initial election as German chancellor. Merkel, who is often referred to as Merz’s “nemesis”, was a pragmatist and moderate, who did not see eye to eye with the staunch conservative Friedrich Merz. He then took a break from politics in 2009, returning to the Bundestag only in 2021 after Merkel had retired.
Merz hails from the rural Sauerland area of Germany’s most-populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. Merz is a wealthy corporate lawyer, a father of three and a Catholic. He started his political career as a CDU Member of European Parliament in 1989, at the age of 33. Five years later in 1994, he switched to the German Lower House of Parliament, the Bundestag, where his sharp oratory skills drew attention. He became an influential member of the conservative parliamentary group (CDU/CSU).
Break from politics
Merz’s withdrawal from politics dovetailed with a successful rise in the private sector: From 2005 to 2021, he was a member of the international law firm Mayer Brown LLP and held top positions on supervisory and administrative boards. From 2016 to 2020, Merz was chairman of the supervisory board of the German arm of Blackrock, the world’s largest asset manager.
In 2022, on Merz’s third attempt at the post, the CDU elected him as party leader. Merz had a reputation as an economically liberal representative of the conservative CDU wing. In 2008 he wrote a book entitled “Mehr Kapitalismus wagen” (dare more capitalism) championing a liberal economic policy, slashing bureaucracy, reducing social benefits and cutting taxes for companies.
‘Problems with foreigners’
In the 1990s, Merz was in the minority of even CDU members when he voted against liberalizing the abortion law, and against preimplantation genetic diagnostics in the Bundestag. When parliament passed a bill to criminalize martial rape like any other rape in 1997, Merz voted against it.
Merz has always been a supporter of nuclear energy and expressed doubts over renewable energy sources such as “ugly” wind turbines.
He drew flak in 2022 for flying his private jet to attend Finance Minister Christian Lindner’s wedding on the island of Sylt at a time of rising energy prices caused by Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Merz has also been accused of pandering to the far-right with denigrating remarks about refugees.
On a TV talk show, he said female school teachers in Germany suffered a lack of respect from what he called “little pashas,” apparently referring to sons of Muslim parents, who then intervene on behalf of their children.
That remark came only weeks after Merz referred to some displaced Ukrainians as “welfare tourists” — claiming that many of them had come to Germany seeking safety, only to then travel back and forth between both countries once they have secured social benefits. Merz later offered an apology of sorts: “I regret using the word ‘welfare tourism.’ It was an inaccurate description of a problem observed in individual cases.”
Merz previously complained about “problems with foreigners” and insisted on a German “Leitkultur” (dominant culture), a term dating back to the 1990s that many argue is a call for assimilation.
He represents a CDU that has become more conservative, although he has stated his refusal to cooperate with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Shortly after Germany’s center-left government collapsed on November 6, 2024, Merz stated in clear terms that the years of Scholz’s coalition were now history, arguing that this had been a long time coming.
Merz is hoping that he and the CDU/CSU will replace Olaf Scholz and his minority government with the Greens following the February 23 election. It remains to be seen which coalition partners he would choose to do so.
This article was originally written in German.
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