Friedrich Merz, Union candidate for chancellor and CDU federal chairman, joins the “Quadrell” TV spherical within the Bundestag election marketing campaign.
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Friedrich Merz, migration hardliner and longtime rival of Angela Merkel, is predicted to turn out to be Germany’s subsequent chancellor. His get together the Christian Democratic Union is main polls alongside its affiliate the Christian Social Union simply days earlier than the election.
Again in September, Merz was elected because the CDU’s get together’s designated candidate for chancellor on this yr’s federal elections, after main the group and heading the opposition CDU-CSU parliamentary group since 2022. The CSU is a regional get together which has dominated Bavarian politics for many years and kinds a union with the CDU at a federal stage.
Between politics and enterprise
Earlier than getting into politics, Merz, 69, studied regulation and first labored as a decide, then as a lawyer at Mayer Brown LLP. He has additionally held senior positions at numerous main companies, together with BlackRock Germany and HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt, in addition to serving on the boards of EY Germany, Borussia Dortmund and the Deutsche Börse.
Merz is married with three youngsters. He reportedly owns two airplanes, which he pilots in his spare time.
Merz says that he joined the CDU when he was nonetheless in class, ultimately main the native department of the get together’s youth group. In 1989 he took on the function of member of the European Parliament for a five-year tenure earlier than becoming a member of Germany’s Bundestag for 15 years.
A lot of Merz’s political profession within the early 2000s was marked by a rivalry with Angela Merkel, with the 2 vying for management positions within the CDU in addition to of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Merz first turned chair after which deputy head of the latter group after 2000.
He resigned from this place in 2004, with observers on the time suggesting this was as a result of Merkel’s rise by the ranks.
Angela Merkel and Friedrich Merz in 2001.
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Tensions between Merkel and Merz linger to at the present time, with the previous German chancellor final month criticizing the CDU chief for cooperating with the far-right Different fuer Deutschland on parliamentary votes.
Coverage positions
Merz, just like the CDU, follows center-right coverage positions and is seen as a socially conservative, pro-business politician.
Merz has advocated for reducing taxes on incomes and for companies, alongside chopping bureaucratic pink tape to spice up companies and innovation and adapting the framework situations for trade in Germany to spice up non-public funding. He has additionally shared his purpose to make Germany extra engaging for startups and has stated that he would create a brand new ministerial function to give attention to digitalization and AI.
The CDU chief has additionally indicated that he would doubtlessly be open to reforming Germany’s extremely contested debt brake rule, which limits how a lot debt the federal government can tackle and restricts the federal authorities’s structural price range deficit.
Merz has been extremely crucial of financial insurance policies beneath Olaf Scholz’ authorities, suggesting that they’re the reason for the nation’s droop and calling for large shifts.
This stance has included criticism about financial insurance policies focusing an excessive amount of on local weather change, which Merz says he’ll change. Whereas he broadly acknowledges the local weather disaster as a problem, Merz has been skeptical about some actions taken to deal with it, for instance constructing wind turbines.
On the international coverage entrance, Merz suggested throughout final weekend’s Munich Safety Convention that Germany ought to tackle a stronger management place inside the Europe and stated that the warfare in Ukraine should quickly come to an finish, whereas indicating that he can be open to additional weapon deliveries to the embattled nation.
Merz has nevertheless broadly dodged questions on plans for Germany’s defense spending amid the controversy about whether or not NATO members ought to increase their funding on this space.
A coverage concern that has gotten Merz into sizzling water is immigration. He has advocated for heightened safety measures, elevated deportations and shaper border controls, criticizing Germany’s present asylum and migration insurance policies for being too relaxed and sluggish transferring and linking them to violent attacks carried out within the nation by folks as a result of be deported.
The state of affairs came to a head in January, when a non-binding movement spearheaded by Merz was backed by the AfD — marking the primary time in Germany’s post-war historical past {that a} majority was achieved with the assistance of the far proper.
