German conservative candidate for chancellor and Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader Friedrich Merz and his wife Charlotte Merz react after the exit poll results are announced for the 2025 general election, in Berlin, Germany, February 23, 2025.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Germany’s conservative opposition leader Friedrich Merz won a victory in a national election on Sunday (February 23, 2025), while Alternative for Germany doubled its support in the strongest showing for a far-right party since World War II, projections showed
Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU alliance won at least 28.5%, said the first exit polls from two public broadcasters, crushing the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) of the outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz, which were looking at around 16%.
Who is Friedrich Merz?
Mr. Merz Germany’s 69-year-old opposition leader has been the front-runner in the election campaign, with his centre-right Union bloc leading polls. He became the leader of his Christian Democratic Union party after longtime Chancellor Angela Merkel — a former rival — stepped down in 2021.
Mr. Merz has taken his party in a more conservative direction. In the election campaign, he has made curbing irregular migration a central issue. Mr. Merz lacks experience in government. He joined the European Parliament in 1989 before becoming a lawmaker in Germany five years later. He took a break from active politics for several years after 2009, practicing as a lawyer and heading the supervisory board of investment manager BlackRock’s German branch.
Friedrich Merz — who once famously argued a tax return should fit onto a beer coaster — has vowed to go to war against the “bureaucracy monster”.
Mr. Merz and others want to free companies from national and EU reporting obligations, especially the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, that they regard as headache-inducing as its German tongue twister name, the “Lieferkettensorgfaltspflichtengesetz”.
Mr. Merz continues to insist, despite relying on the AfD’s support in a parliamentary vote last month, that he would never form a coalition with the anti-immigration party.
In a survey by polling firm INSA published in tabloid Bild, 40% of those quizzed considered Merz more competent overall than Mr. Scholz, who was favoured by just 28%.
Mr. Merz scored better than Mr. Scholz across a range of flashpoint election issues, including immigration, security and the economy, an outcome the right-leaning Bild labelled a “severe poll damper for Scholz shortly before the election”.
Friedrich Merz on role of U.S.
Friedrich Merz says his absolute priority is “to create unity in Europe” — especially against the background of what’s happening in the United States and Russia.
Commenting on U.S. role and intervention in several world conflicts, Mr. Merz says: “I have no illusions at all about what is happening from America. Take a look at the recent interventions in the German election campaign by Mr. Elon Musk.” He added that “the interventions from Washington were no less dramatic and drastic and ultimately outrageous than the interventions we have seen from Moscow. So we are under such massive pressure from two sides that my absolute priority now is really to create unity in Europe.”
The election took place seven months earlier than originally planned after Scholz’s unpopular coalition collapsed in November, three years into a term that was increasingly marred by infighting.
Published – February 24, 2025 06:58 am IST
