Over a decade in the private sector, Merz sat on a series of corporate boards, including a four-year stint with U.S. asset manager BlackRock, a time he counts as among the happiest in his life, according to biographer Resing. Merz says this time provided him valuable experience outside of politics, but his critics accuse him of simply using his political connections to lobby for powerful interests, making himself a millionaire in the process.
When Merkel stepped down as CDU leader in 2018, Merz saw an opportunity to return to politics. Merkel’s centrism and generous refugee policies, Merz believed, had opened up the CDU’s right flank and allowed the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. Merz set out to undo much of Merkel’s legacy and aimed to pull the CDU sharply to the right. The party, looking for reinvention after 16 years of Merkel and an election loss to Olaf Scholz’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) in 2021, elected him chairman in early 2022 on his third attempt for the job. “I am deeply moved,” Merz said after the vote, fighting back tears.
Risk-taker or populist?
Though Merz and his conservatives emerged victorious in Sunday’s election, surveys suggest he’s not particularly popular among the public.
In a country that remains deeply skeptical of the financial industry, Merz’s wealth and time at BlackRock, the American investment company, are often viewed with suspicion. It doesn’t help matters that Merz routinely jets around the country in his own twin-engine plane, which he flies himself, having fulfilled a lifelong dream by getting his pilot’s license in his 50s.
“Friedrich Merz is not really very beloved, but he is respected,” Günther Oettinger, a former senior CDU politician and European commissioner, told POLITICO late last year.
Yet Merz also has a reputation for being impulsive, thin-skinned and prone to populist bluster, particularly when it comes to migration. His defenders say he’s merely a risk-taker — at trait he took from his years in the private sector — and someone who doesn’t shy away from sharp-tongued debate.