{"id":3988,"date":"2025-05-05T22:30:53","date_gmt":"2025-05-05T22:30:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/?p=3988"},"modified":"2025-05-08T15:16:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-08T15:16:09","slug":"merz-of-all-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/merz-of-all-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Merz, of all people"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Credits: Veronica Carratello<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

You can’t say it was made easy for him. Not in recent decades, and not in recent weeks \u2013 and certainly not this crucial tuesday in parlament. Friedrich Merz’s path to the chancellorship in Germany was a long one, and it was rarely easy or straightforward. This was true anyway, and it became very obvious the day he was elected \u2013 being him the first in canciller in german history that los the first vote, which caused one oft he most turbulent days in the Bundestag.\u00a0There is little to suggest that this \u2013 including the turmult \u2013 will change now. Most political observers \u2013 and half the country \u2013 agree that Merz’s chancellorship will be one that matters. Not only behind closed doors, some are also saying: He of all people. What they mean is: Let’s hope it goes well, in these conflict times, especially with Friedrich Merz.<\/p>\n

The mood in Germany is tense, politically, economically and socially. The Federal Republic and its society have never been known for their optimistic attitude, but recently there has been a worrying, sometimes even apocalyptic undertone everywhere. This has to do with economic data that people in this country have not been used to for a long time: the number of insolvencies is higher than it has been for decades. Significant structural problems are evident in the country’s important automotive industry, in energy-intensive companies and in the construction sector. The economic forecasts are modest month after month: Germany is in crisis.<\/p>\n

The failure of the last government was due to the fact that it did not get to grips with this crisis, or even tackle it properly. But it also had to do with the fact that the traffic light coalition of Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals spent too much time on internal disputes and was unable to adequately address other major concerns of the citizens. These included, first and foremost, issues of migration and internal security. But it is also about affordable housing, pension security and reducing bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

And, of course, the uncertainty has a lot to do with the war in Ukraine, a changing global order and the question of what role Germany can play in Europe and Europe can play in the world. At the same time, as in so many countries, trust in institutions, politics and politicians has fallen dramatically in a general way.\u00a0 Over 80 percent of Germans believe the country is on the wrong track, according to a recent representative survey. And all of this seems to play into the hands of a party that caters to precisely these fears without ever really providing any profound answers of its own to the issues at stake: the Alternative for Germany (AfD).<\/p>\n

This is the panorama against which the elections took place in March. These are the immense challenges facing those who will now govern. All eyes have been on Friedrich Merz for months, even before he was elected chancellor.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe of all people\u201d: Merz can look back on a long political career \u2013 he has been in politics since the 1980s, spent years in the European Parliament and later in the German Bundestag, where he only returned in 2021 after a few years in the business world. He knows his party and its personnel inside out. But Friedrich Merz has never governed. Hasn’t been a minister, not even a mayor. He is considered impulsive. Even occasionally thin-skinned. And both seemed to be evident even before his election, in a week that no one in Germany has forgotten: After another attack by a refugee in which a child died, Merz wanted to quickly push through a new migration law in the Bundestag – and accepted the votes of the AfD to do so; a breach of taboo for many. The protests against this vote, and against him personally, were huge. The mistrust as to whether he would be the one to tear down the so-called firewall tot he right-wing populists grew and is still present today \u2013 although he never left any doubt about his firm position.<\/p>\n

As soon as the election was over, Friedrich Merz once again caused considerable resentment, this time particularly within his own party. During the election campaign, he had repeatedly campaigned on the basis of adherence to the debt brake, an issue that had also caused the old government to collapse. Now Merz made an unexpected U-turn. He suddenly advocated easing the debt brake for defense spending and a 500 billion euro debt pot to renovate the infrastructure, justifying it with the foreign policy situation surrounding Ukraine. The base went wild. And it still does to some extent today. Coalition negotiations followed, in which Merz and the CDU\/CSU seemed to make too many concessions to the Social Democrats; instead of a new beginning, which many conservative voters in particular had hoped for, continuity seems to be emerging. Merz had long been the opponent of former Chancellor Angela Merkel in the party; there had long been talk of the more liberal Merkel-wing and the more conservative wing around Merz. Now that no longer seems to be the case. In fact, the future chancellor can suddenly be sure of the support of the former Merkel-wing in particular.<\/p>\n

All of this had consequences among his party and the others. This ist he context that also explains the dramatic day in German parlament this week, and why it is not only suspected that some Socialdemocrats, altough they before agreed on the coalition and coaliton contract, voted against Merz as a canciller \u2013 but maybe even people of his own party.<\/p>\n

But all of this had consequences among voters as well. Rarely has a government been so discredited before taking office as this one. Only 21% of the population still trust the Merz government to solve the country’s future problems. The alarming results of another survey show where this leads to: in April, the Afd was ahead of the CDU with 26%, leading the polls. A party that is considered to be at least partly right-wing extremist – something that has not happened in Germany since the Second World War.<\/p>\n

At least Merz managed to surprise with the cabinet: The ministers include not only names that have been expected for some time, but also newcomers to politics: the Ministry of Digital Affairs will be headed by a manager from the private sector, while the Ministry of Economic Affairs will be led by a woman who has worked as a manager outside of politics for at least the last few years. in a way, this made up for a personnel matter that had previously caused at least some people to frown. Carsten Linnemann, one of Merz’s closest confidants and General Secretary of the party, had surprisingly resigned from a ministerial post, he had been earmarked for the important post of Economics Minister. Which, on the other hand, didnt came as a surprise to some, because after the negotiations important competencies of the office went to other ministries. That was also seen as a focus from the economy, which had been at the heart of his election campaign, to other issues.<\/p>\n

At least that is not bad news for foreign countries. Friedrich Merz made it clear early on that his stance on the Ukraine issue is very clear: the support is valid, and it is even more valid than ever since the USA withdrew. By announcing his intention to send Taurus cruise missiles, he has sent a clear signal to both Moscow and the USA. He also sends signals that he is striving for a strong position for Germany in Europe; he has met with the French President several times and both have demonstratively emphasized their solidarity. And he has now introduced Johannes Wadephul, a Foreign Minister who is considered to be a loyal supporter; unlike in the previous government, the Chancellor and Foreign Minister can therefore be expected to speak with one voice. That ist good news fort he european partners. Its not by chance, that first thing in office he travelled to Poland and to France.<\/p>\n

And as far as his domestic political situation is concerned, one observer recently remarked that things can only go up from here; the new government can hardly disappoint given the low expectations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Chancellor wants to reinvent Germany and its place in Europe, but must prove that he knows how to manage change \u2013 including his own<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":4041,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"iawp_total_views":65,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-senza-categoria"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3988"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4306,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3988\/revisions\/4306"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/foglioeuropeo.ilfoglio.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}