{"id":8374,"date":"2025-02-24T05:00:04","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T05:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/who-is-friedrich-merz-the-man-poised-to-be-germanys-next-chancellor\/"},"modified":"2025-02-24T05:00:04","modified_gmt":"2025-02-24T05:00:04","slug":"who-is-friedrich-merz-the-man-poised-to-be-germanys-next-chancellor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/site.itshrt.com\/worldnews\/who-is-friedrich-merz-the-man-poised-to-be-germanys-next-chancellor\/","title":{"rendered":"Who Is Friedrich Merz, the Man Poised to Be Germany\u2019s Next Chancellor?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"1882483372\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"auto\"\r\n     data-full-width-responsive=\"true\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-0\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Friedrich Merz, the man <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/live\/2025\/02\/23\/world\/germany-election\" title=\"\">who is almost certain<\/a> to be Germany\u2019s next chancellor, is a conservative businessman who has never been a minister and was forced out of government years ago in a power struggle with Angela Merkel.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">The leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union, which finished first in the election on Sunday, Mr. Merz earned his fortune working in the private sector before returning to politics at 63.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">That business background appealed to many Germans amid the political turbulence caused in part by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2024\/12\/16\/world\/europe\/germany-government-collapse-olaf-scholz.html\" title=\"\">stagnation in one of Europe\u2019s largest economies<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Merz, now 69, was born and still lives in the Sauerland, a district of western Germany known for hills, heavy food and picturesque nature. It was from there that he was first elected into the European Parliament in 1989 and then the German Parliament in 1994.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-1\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">While he comes from the same party as Ms. Merkel, the former chancellor, Mr. Merz \u2014 a pugnacious old-school politician \u2014 is in many ways her opposite.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He rose through the ranks to lead the Christian Democrats\u2019 parliamentary group, but was ousted by a rising star in the party \u2014 Ms. Merkel. It was then that Mr. Merz pivoted from politics and started a lucrative law career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He got rich working as a lawyer and a lobbyist. When Ms. Merkel was getting ready to retire, Mr. Merz got back into politics. In 2018, when he returned to the political stage, Mr. Merz promised he could stem the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, known as the AfD, by moving his party further right on key issues like migration and crime.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Merz re-entered Parliament in 2021 and \u2014 after two failed attempts \u2014 won the party leadership in 2022.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As party leader, however, he made a number of gaffes \u2014 like claiming in September 2023 that refugees were having their teeth redone at taxpayers\u2019 expense while regular German patients were unable to get appointments. (The head of the German Dental Association denied this.) And his insistence that he is just a regular member of the middle class \u2014 despite significant personal means \u2014 has been mocked by some Germans who see him as being divorced from the economic reality many members of the middle class face.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-2\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, Mr. Merz managed to coalesce his party around him and shift it to a more traditional conservative posture after Ms. Merkel\u2019s long tenure took the party further to the left. His business experience is considered a strength, as he promises to restore growth to the German economy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">As chancellor, as a conservative and committed trans-Atlanticist, Mr. Merz would be considered a better match for President Trump than the current Social Democratic chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Mr. Merz is also expected to lead a foreign policy more aligned with Mr. Trump\u2019s ideas about Europe\u2019s taking responsibility for its own defense.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Still, Mr. Merz \u2014 who is known to be assertive and direct, if a bit awkward \u2014 pushed back strongly against Mr. Trump\u2019s latest comments siding with Russia about Ukraine, as well as what was seen as interference in Germany\u2019s election by <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/14\/world\/europe\/vance-europe-immigration-ukraine.html\" title=\"\">Vice President JD Vance<\/a> when he <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/02\/14\/us\/politics\/vance-far-right-germany-munich-afd.html\" title=\"\">criticized Europe for sidelining far-right<\/a> voters and their parties.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Boldness is characteristic of Mr. Merz, analysts say, and reflects a conviction that Germany must be more forcefully engaged in European and global affairs. Mr. Scholz has often been criticized for his tentativeness and caution, even from within his own coalition.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Just last month, Mr. Merz showed his willingness to act brashly when he presented a migration measure and then a bill in Parliament that he knew he could pass only with the hard-right AfD, despite earlier promises never to work with them. The political maneuver <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2025\/01\/31\/world\/europe\/germany-friedrich-merz-immigration.html\" title=\"\">did not go well<\/a>: It prompted hundreds of thousands of Germans to take to the streets in protest, dissent within his party and a rare public rebuke from Ms. Merkel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<div data-testid=\"companionColumn-3\">\n<div class=\"css-53u6y8\">\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">Mr. Merz has vowed to carve out a more prominent German role inside the European Union and NATO, to pursue better relations with France and Poland, and to take a tougher stance against China, which he has described as a full member of the \u201caxis of autocracies.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">He has also promised more forthright support for Ukraine\u2019s battle against Russia \u2014 saying, for instance, that he would provide Ukraine with Germany\u2019s long-range cruise missile, the Taurus. And Mr. Merz has pledged that Germany will meet and surpass the current NATO target of 2 percent of gross domestic product being spent on the military for the long term.<\/p>\n<p class=\"css-at9mc1 evys1bk0\">In a recent <a class=\"css-yywogo\" href=\"https:\/\/koerber-stiftung.de\/en\/media\/friedrich-merz-on-the-foreign-and-european-policy-priorities-for-germany\/\" title=\"\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\" target=\"_blank\">foreign-policy speech<\/a> at the K\u00f6rber Foundation, Mr. Merz, a former member of the European Parliament, promised to provide German leadership in Europe, which has not been a priority for Mr. Scholz, and to establish a national security council in the chancellery.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<aside class=\"css-ew4tgv\" aria-label=\"companion column\"\/><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-6606220950177433\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<!-- ItShrt World News -->\r\n<ins 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never<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[1342,114,861,151,1344,763,128,1341,1343,1346,469,1345,113,111,127],"class_list":["post-8374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world","tag-angela","tag-donald-j","tag-elections","tag-europe","tag-friedrich","tag-germany","tag-j-d","tag-merkel","tag-merz","tag-olaf-1958","tag-politics-and-government","tag-scholz","tag-trump","tag-united-states-politics-and-government","tag-vance"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Who Is Friedrich Merz, the Man Poised to Be Germany\u2019s Next Chancellor? - World News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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