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 battle with Angela Merkel.
The chief of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, Mr. Merz earned his fortune working within the personal sector earlier than returning to politics at 63.
That enterprise background appealed to many Germans amid the political turbulence triggered partly by stagnation in certainly one of Europe’s largest economies.
Mr. Merz, now 69, was born and nonetheless lives within the Sauerland, a district of western Germany identified 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 get together 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 guide the Christian Democrats’ parliamentary group, however was ousted by a rising star within the get together — Ms. Merkel. It was then that Mr. Merz pivoted from politics and began a profitable legislation profession.
He bought wealthy working as a lawyer and a lobbyist. When Ms. Merkel was on the point of retire, Mr. Merz bought 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 get together, generally known as the AfD, by transferring his get together additional proper on key points like migration and crime.
Mr. Merz re-entered Parliament in 2021 and — after two failed makes an attempt — gained the get together management in 2022.
As get together chief, nevertheless, he made a variety of gaffes — like claiming in September 2023 that refugees had been having their tooth redone at taxpayers’ expense whereas common German sufferers had 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 get together round him and shift it to a extra conventional conservative posture after Ms. Merkel’s lengthy tenure took the get together additional to the left. His enterprise expertise is taken into account a power, as he guarantees to revive development to the German financial system.
As chancellor, as a conservative and dedicated trans-Atlanticist, Mr. Merz can be thought-about a greater match for President Trump than the present Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Mr. Merz can be anticipated to guide a international 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 should 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 offered a migration measure after which a invoice in Parliament that he knew he might go solely with the hard-right AfD, regardless of earlier guarantees by no means to work with them. The political maneuver didn’t go properly: It prompted a whole bunch of hundreds of Germans to take to the streets in protest, dissent inside his get together and a uncommon public rebuke from Ms. Merkel.
Mr. Merz has vowed to carve out a extra outstanding German function 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 example, 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 % 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.