Opinion | Germany’s next Prime Minister Friedrich Merz is the man of yesterday
He enjoyed a steady rise there, especially in popularizing the concept of Leitkultur, a series of norms that every immigrant should submit. But the highest award was blocked by his long-time rival Angela Merkel. After losing leadership in a fierce power struggle in the early 2000s, he gradually moved to the private sector, amassing a huge fortune in the process. But Ms. Merkel’s departure from the party’s leadership gave him a chance to make a comeback. In his third attempt, he promised much harder in crime and immigration, and he finally took control of the party in early 2022.
His term is unbalanced. Jutta Falke-Ischinger, co-author of Merz’s informal biography, described him as a person who lacked “impulse control” and had the potential to see such willfulness in his leadership. He became headlines for insulting minorities, including Ukrainian refugees and Muslim children, resulting in multiple public apology. His sometimes ridiculous, unfounded comments – for example, those who refuse asylum seekers are taking all dental dates nationwide, leaving nothing for the Germans – suggesting that someone is happy to attend the right-wing conversation points.
His biggest gamble, however, was during the campaign. In January, an asylum seeker stabbed several people and killed two people in Bavaria, and Mr. Melz brought a harsh anti-immigration proposal to parliament, relying on alternative votes to get Germany through. The cooperation not only broke his own promise to not work with the party, but also broke the post-war firewall that blocked the far right. Criticism is loud and direct. It seemed like a strange step as he paraded towards victory.
Since then, Mr. Meers has used himself as a bastion of opposition to dictatorship, blocking Europe from authoritarian biases by the United States and Russia. There is no offense here: Mr. Meers is a firm believer in the EU and NATO, an old-fashioned institutionalist and lifelong transatlantic. For him, Germany’s support for Ukraine did not seek debate, and the emerging alliance between the United States and Russia was an irrefutable insult. On election night, he said Europe (“five minutes midnight”) had to be prepared to be independent from the United States.
To be sure, these are strong words. But this is a move Germany has seen before. In the early 2000s, then-President Gerhard Schröder also moved away from the United States from the United States, in this case, in its war in Iraq and vibrantly promoted European integration. This is not all Mr. Meers borrowed from Mr. Schroeder. His set of proposals marked as the 2030 agenda is similar not only to a series of reforms carried out by the Schröder government, known as the agenda of the 2010 agenda. As with earlier policies, the focus was on reducing Social Security payments, cutting company regulations and providing tax relief to companies. The goal is to “restore the country’s competitiveness,” Meles said.
