BERLIN (AP) — Conservative leader Friedrich Merz is on course to become post-World War II Germany’s 10th chancellor after finalizing a deal Wednesday to form a new government.
Merz, 69, who will succeed outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, has vowed to prioritize European unity and the continent’s security as it grapples with the new Trump administration and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Merz’s two-party Union bloc emerged as the strongest force from Germany’s election on Feb. 23. He then turned to the Social Democrats, Scholz’s center-left party, to put together a coalition with a parliamentary majority. He has already pushed through plans to enable higher defense spending, and faced more pressure to finish the deal after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs created significant market disruption.
As chancellor, Merz will face the challenge of helping to fill a leadership vacuum and craft a united response to recent U.S. policy shifts that have strained the transatlantic alliance.
The top job has been late in coming for Merz, a trained lawyer who saw his ascent derailed by former Chancellor Angela Merkel in the early 2000s and even turned his back on active politics for several years. Despite his political experience, he is heading to the chancellery without previously having served in government.
The rivalry with Merkel
Merkel has described Merz as a brilliant speaker and complimented his desire for leadership, though she acknowledged this was a problem in their relationship.
“We are almost the same age … We grew up completely differently, which was more of an opportunity than an obstacle,” she wrote in her memoir “Freedom.”
“But there was one problem, right from the start: We both wanted to be the boss,” she said.
Merkel moved to consolidate her grip on Germany’s center-right after the Union narrowly lost a national election in 2002. She pushed Merz aside as leader of its parliamentary group, taking the job herself in addition to the leadership of the Christian Democratic Union party she already held. She went on to lead Germany from 2005 to 2021.
A break from politics
Merz turned his back on active politics for several years after leaving the parliament in 2009.
He practiced law and headed the supervisory board of investment manager BlackRock’s German branch. During that break, he often travelled for business to the United States and China, though he never lived outside Germany.
Volker Resing, who wrote the recent biography “Friedrich Merz: His Path to Power,” says that Merz would possibly be “the most international chancellor” Germany has had since 1945.
Political comeback
Merz launched his political comeback after Merkel stepped down as CDU leader in 2018 and announced that she wouldn’t seek a fifth term of chancellor. However, he was narrowly defeated by centrist candidates in party leadership votes in 2018 and early 2021.
But he persisted and was finally elected party leader in the third attempt, after the center-right’s defeat by current Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Germany’s 2021 election. Merz cemented his power by also becoming the leader of the Union’s parliamentary group.
According to Resing, Merz does not believe in avoiding confrontation at all costs, but believes that “a certain amount of provocation can set off a real debate and perhaps a real development in motion.”
During the election campaign, Merz vowed to make Germany’s ailing economy strong again and curb irregular migration.
With President Donald Trump back in the White House and tensions rising over how to resolve the war in Ukraine, Merz, who has long supported a strong transatlantic relationship, said after his victory that his top priority is to unify Europe in the face of challenges coming from the United States and Russia.
Flirting with the far right?
Merz put toughening Germany’s immigration laws at the forefront of the election campaign after a migrant killed two people in a knife attack in the Bavarian city of Aschaffenburg last month.
He brought a nonbinding motion before the parliament, calling for many more migrants to be turned back at Germany’s borders. The motion was narrowly approved thanks to votes from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.
That prompted his opponents to accuse Merz of breaking a taboo in allegedly working with the AfD, and a public rebuke from Merkel. Critics pointed to the episode as an illustration of what they say is Merz’s tendency to impulsiveness.
Hundreds of thousands of Germans took to the streets to protest against both Merz’ motion and also the rise of the far right.
Merz has insisted he did nothing wrong and never worked with AfD, and also repeatedly vowed to “never” work with the party if he becomes chancellor.
Roots in rural Germany
Merz represents his rural region in Germany’s parliament — an area where people are “rather down-to-earth, perhaps a little reserved,” Resing said. “That’s what shaped him: rural life.”
As a politician, Merz has always championed conservative values and stressed the importance of family.
He met his wife Charlotte, who is now a judge, while he was studying law, and they have three grown children.
Merz joined the CDU in 1972 and was elected to the European Parliament in 1989. He first joined the German parliament in 1994.
In the pilot’s seat
A pilot openly passionate about his hobby, Merz sometimes would fly his own small plane from his home in the Sauerland region in western Germany to Berlin on Monday mornings.
He has stuck to flying, despite the long hours imposed by his job as opposition leader and occasional criticism that he is indulging in a rich man’s hobby.
“When you talk to him about flying, his eyes light up,” Resing said. “He says that when you’re above the clouds, that’s freedom.”
