{"id":75738,"date":"2025-05-05T06:11:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T06:11:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/75738\/"},"modified":"2025-05-05T06:11:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-05T06:11:11","slug":"germanys-incoming-chancellor-friedrich-merz-known-for-impulsive-shifts-and-rhetorical-sharpshooting-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/75738\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany\u2019s incoming chancellor Friedrich Merz known for impulsive shifts and rhetorical sharpshooting \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

When ordinary Germans approach Friedrich Merz<\/a> in public, it\u2019s usually for one of two things: either they want a selfie or they hand him a beer mat to sign.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the lanky 69-year-old will become postwar Germany\u2019s<\/a> 10th federal chancellor. It crowns a remarkable political comeback and restarts the clock on an outstanding political promise.<\/p>\n

Back in 2003, as finance spokesman for the centre-right Christian Democratic Union<\/a> (CDU) in Berlin<\/a>, Merz promised Germans an income tax return simple enough to fit on a beer mat. As one half of a post-Kohl CDU reform duo alongside party leader Angela Merkel<\/a>, the Merz beer mat tax return symbolised a promise: to hack away the bureaucracy and inertia they saw choking German business, potential and prosperity.<\/p>\n

The reform never happened. First Merkel sidelined the ambitious Merz. In 2005, after barely scraping into power with her reform agenda, Merkel recalibrated herself as a centrist mother-of-the-nation. The beer mat ended up in a museum and the conservative-liberal Merz, frustrated as a backbencher, quit politics in 2009. After becoming a millionaire as a lawyer and lobbyist, he secured his comeback as CDU leader \u2013 on the third attempt \u2013 and only after Merkel departed the political stage<\/a> in 2021.<\/p>\n

On the campaign trail in last February\u2019s snap election, Merz found that his own lingering resentment towards Merkel chimed with the frustration of a significant number of CDU voters, many of whom blamed her centrist approach for unresolved problems in migration, welfare and the economy.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, Merz has revived his party\u2019s conservative-liberal profile and, on the campaign trail, promised voters a CDU in power \u201cthat adopts clear positions once more\u201d. His long-term aim: to win back protest voters from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), people who he describes as \u201cdisappointed, frustrated and fed up with what\u2019s been happening in Berlin for years\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the Merz inner circle, February\u2019s election victory is a sign of the times and confirmation of their strategy\u2019s success. \u201cMerz appeals to the people who feel steamrollered by modern life,\u201d says a conservative-liberal CDU official, \u201che gives them a sense of order again\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"FriedrichFriedrich Merz and Angela Merkel speak prior to Merz’s speech on tax reform at the CDU party congress in 2003. Photograph: Sean Gallup\/Getty <\/p>\n

Order has long been a priority for Merz, born in the small town of Brilon in the western Sauerland region. Yet his Catholic family biography holds many of the contradictions of 20th-century Germany: a maternal grandfather who was a card-carrying Nazi party member; a father whose family fled from lost eastern territories and who, later as a judge, oversaw many postwar \u201cdenazification\u201d trials.<\/p>\n

Merz\u2019s life throws up contradictions of its own. He quietly joined the buttoned-down CDU aged 17 during a spell as a long-haired Rolling Stones fan. A decade later, aged 26, he married his long-term girlfriend Charlotte with whom he has a son and two daughters. After studying law, Merz discovered a passion for politics and entered, first, the European Parliament in 1989 and the Bundestag five years later. <\/p>\n

[\u00a0Tariff crisis has a silver lining for MerzOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

After run-ins with CDU leader and chancellor Helmut Kohl, Merz found a more amenable mentor in Wolfgang Sch\u00e4uble. His death in 2023<\/a> robbed Merz of \u201cthe closest friend and adviser that I ever had in politics\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was Sch\u00e4uble who urged Merz to return to claim the leadership crown and shape a post-Merkel CDU. Ambivalent CDU centrists fear the return to power via Merz\u2019s conservative restoration is a slide back to a pre-Merkel CDU. \u201cSay what you want about Merkel,\u201d said one recently retired CDU politician, \u201cbut she made ours a party that my daughter voted for.\u201d The politician hasn\u2019t asked his daughter if she voted CDU last February. <\/p>\n

A result of 28.5 per cent and election night smiles cannot conceal how Merz has secured power with the second-worst result in CDU history. Some attribute the relatively weak showing to how Merz finished the election a long way from where he started it: with an economic \u201cAgenda 2030\u201d plan to end three years of recession with cuts to taxes and red tape, boost R & D investment, loosen climate regulations and cut welfare.<\/p>\n

In January, Merz threw out the economic focus, days after an Afghan-born asylum seeker fatally stabbed a toddler and an adult in Bavaria. Three weeks to polling day, the CDU leader instead launched a parliamentary push for tougher border controls and asylum rules. Unable to secure mainstream political backing, Merz allowed the largely symbolic measures pass the Bundestag with AfD support \u2013 shattering a postwar taboo.<\/p>\n

While political rivals warned the CDU leader had \u201copened the door to hell<\/a>\u201d, Merz insists his party\u2019s self-imposed \u201cfirewall\u201d to the AfD remains intact. Not everyone is convinced. One reason cited is an issue that recurs often in conversations about Merz: \u201cimpulse control\u201d.<\/p>\n

While Angela Merkel was the queen of impulse control \u2013 always waiting until the last minute before reacting \u2013 Merz is known for impulsive shifts and rhetorical sharpshooting. Critics attribute his sharp tongue to a fragile male ego and a lawyer\u2019s brain trained in black-and-white thinking. <\/p>\n

\"AngelaAngela Merkel: ‘The queen of impulse control.’ Photograph: Gregor Fischer\/AFP\/Getty <\/p>\n

Loyal CDU officials and supporters see in Merz a sharp, analytical intellect and rhetorical gift. He may create more clean-up work for them, they say, but his approach is more in tune with the times. \u201cMerz is an emotional person and he shows it,\u201d says one CDU aide, \u201crather than drift through, controlled and emotionless.\u201d It remains to be seen, though, whether the emotional, polarising Merz remains intact or a softer figure emerges as chancellor. <\/p>\n

Forecasts are difficult given Merz, despite his age and lengthy political career, has never before held public office. When he opens his first cabinet meeting as chancellor, Germany\u2019s oldest elected leader since Konrad Adenauer, it will be his first ever cabinet meeting. Around the Merz cabinet table, 10 centre-right CDU\/CSU allies of a conservative-liberal hue will face seven ministers from the Social Democratic Party (SPD). The smaller centre-left party had a disastrous election, yet, as the CDU\u2019s only coalition prospect, secured the influential finance ministry as well as a landmark agreement to borrow at least \u20ac1 trillion to invest in Germany\u2019s creaking infrastructure and defence capabilities.<\/p>\n

\"FriedrichFriedrich Merz faces huge expectations among Germany\u2019s neighbours after the drift of the outgoing Olaf Scholz era. Photograph: Tobias Schwarz\/AFP\/Getty <\/p>\n

That move was welcomed by many as overdue yet many Merz CDU conservative backers see it has a betrayal of campaign promises for reform, austerity and balanced budgets. The CDU-SPD coalition agreement contains few clues, beyond tax cuts and investment incentives, of how the incoming Merz administration will revive the stuttering German economic motor.<\/p>\n

And though coalition has yet to take office, its parties already disagree over what they agreed on tighter management of migration and asylum. Beyond the huge economic challenges at home, Merz faces huge expectations among Germany\u2019s neighbours after the drift of the outgoing Olaf Scholz era. Merz has promised greater co-ordination of German positions in Brussels, and will travel to Paris and Warsaw next week to co-ordinate on challenges posed by Russia, China and Donald Trump, who has tested Merz\u2019s long-held transatlantic convictions.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile Kyiv is waiting to see if Merz makes good on his promises for additional support, in particular cruise missiles and security guarantees. After years presenting himself as Germany\u2019s thwarted liberal-conservative genius, nothing stands any longer in the way of Friedrich Merz and his grand plans \u2013 except political reality and himself.<\/p>\n

Even Angela Merkel seems curious as to what will happen next. After years of avoiding Merz, making a considerable effort to block his leadership bid, the ex-chancellor has announced she will attend Tuesday\u2019s swearing-in ceremony. Asked last year about her ally-turned-rival, Merkel delivered a pitch-perfect put-down: \u201cTo be chancellor you must have an absolute will for power \u2013 and Friedrich Merz has that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When ordinary Germans approach Friedrich Merz in public, it\u2019s usually for one of two things: either they want…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75739,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5310],"tags":[13402,32,2000,299,1945,1824,37368],"class_list":{"0":"post-75738","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-germany","8":"tag-angela-merkel","9":"tag-donald-trump","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-friedrich-merz","13":"tag-germany","14":"tag-weekendreview"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114453747082414058","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75738","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75738"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75738\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75739"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75738"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75738"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75738"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}