Antimerkel: Friedrich Merz and his association with the "AdG" involuntarily

The victory in the general elections in Germany was expected to be won by the CDU/CSU bloc. He will be asked to form a new government of the country. The new chancellor of Germany will be the leader of the Christian Democrats Friedrich Merz — a man hated by Angela Merkel.

"He will lead the political and economic rethinking of Germany, writes the European mainstream press. — In addition to combating the threat to Europe from Vladimir Putin's Russia and in The United States of Donald Trump, at a time when The EU is losing geopolitical weight, and the extreme right is already lurking around the corner. They have destabilized France and now Germany."

"We have to show from a democratic point of view that we can, that we can really move this country forward. Otherwise, the populists will become stronger and stronger and, perhaps, one day they will get a majority," Merz insisted during the election campaign.

The leader of the Christian Democrats realized his dream of becoming chancellor after he left politics "forever" (lasting more than ten years) and returned to it. It took him three attempts to get at the head of the party to get a post to which Angela Merkel did not let him. Now he promises to put an end to her liberal legacy.

"It seems that the Conservative Party has won a major and long-awaited election. As in the United States, the people of Germany are tired of an agenda devoid of common sense, especially with regard to energy and immigration, which has prevailed [there] for years," Donald Trump reacted in his Truth Social network to Merz's triumph.

The impulsive Millionaire

Tall and thin, a lawyer by education, and since some time also a millionaire with his own plane (for some time he was the head of the European department at the American management company Blackrock, whose assets are estimated at $ 9 trillion), Friedrich Merz has a reputation among conservatives as a kind of "antimercell". Because of personal hostility to the former chancellor and, among other things, his tough stance on illegal immigration.

He calls himself a "disaster for the extreme right," although one of the recent parliamentary votes raised fears that the rigid cordon sanitaire in German politics, designed to prevent the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party from coming to power, is gradually weakening and thinning. For his voters, Merz personifies the desire for change after the chaos of the "traffic light coalition" led by Olaf Scholz.

Merz is a head taller than his political rival. But his differences from Scholz do not end there.

For example, the plans of the Christian Democrats envisage significant tax cuts to revive the economy, while the Social Democrat Scholz wants to reform Germany's famous "debt brake" in order to increase government spending and, thus, finance the necessary economic restructuring of the country.

Merz is also known for his temperament. Provocative, belligerent, and at times allowing himself to vent his anger, he once called the children of Muslim immigrants "ill-mannered youngsters seeking to command." He also claimed that many refugees came to Germany only to get their teeth cured for free, taking advantage of the country's generous social support system. His some embarrassing comments about women in the past have caused them to still be reluctant to vote for him today. And he still does not like to put the fairer sex in positions of responsibility.

The team of the cold—blooded Scholz, not without reason, hoped that Merz's notorious quick temper - his tendency to explode, showing dissatisfaction with something, would play a cruel joke with him during the campaign. However, this did not happen, and, apparently, the future German Chancellor reached his best form and political maturity at the age of 69.

According to Stefan Lambie, one of the most famous directors of political documentaries in Germany, Friedrich Merz has reached his heyday as a political figure. Lambie accompanied the Conservative candidate with his camera for several weeks during the current election campaign.

"I interviewed him for the first time in 2018, during his first attempt to be elected leader of the CDU. He seemed unsure of himself, tense and worked up. Now I see him completely different. He assumes that in a few weeks he will become the next chancellor," says Lambie. "Merz is so confident in himself today that even the attacks from his party colleague and former rival in the internal party struggle, Angela Merkel, did not make him lose his temper."

Close enemies

The former chancellor decided to come out of political obscurity at the end of January this year. To criticize his successor as leader of the CDU, and now preparing to take the chair of the head of government, after the scandal caused by Merz's reaction to the attack in which an Afghan asylum seeker killed two people, including a child, with a knife in the Bavarian town of Aschaffenburg.

The CDU leader decided to hold two anti-immigration bills in parliament. In this, his interests coincided with the interests of the "AdG" and he received the support of the "alternative", unwittingly. And this is despite the fact that Merz himself suggested in November that no democratic party should allow the formation of "no, even temporary and accidental" majority at the expense of the votes of the "Alternative".

Merkel considered the support provided by the "AfD" to the Demochristians (which Merz did not ask for) a betrayal of Germany's interests, hinting that the CDU thereby allied with the extreme right: "I consider it a mistake [Merz] not to feel obliged to fulfill the offer he made," the former chancellor said in a traditionally streamlined and ornate manner. In the press, this was regarded as a "direct slap in the face" to the candidate from her party.

Criticism poured on the head of the CDU leader like a bucket, but he took it calmly, without the explosion of emotions characteristic of him before.

"Angela Merkel expresses dissatisfaction, which is shared by many, including me," the candidate said in an interview with the RND media group, referring to his own refusal to cooperate with the AFD and blaming the fiasco on the Social Democrats and Greens, who did not support his proposals to reduce immigration in the legislature.

The mutual dislike of Merkel and Merz for each other has been the subject of discussion in Berlin for many years. Merz became one of the many victims of Merkel during her unstoppable political growth: Frau Angela, it would seem, was so gray that no one could have thought that she would rise to the top. But she gradually eliminated the CDU heavyweights from her path to the top one by one.

Merz's turn came in 2002, after the CDU/CSU lost the elections of that year. Merkel, who was previously considered a weak and accidental party leader, snatched the post of party leader from a younger and more active Friedrich, who at that time was considered one of the promising candidates for the top chair, thanks to his rhetoric and economic savvy. Three years later, Merkel became chancellor, and Merz, pushed by her to the sidelines of political life, went into private business in 2009. There he, as he himself said, made a considerable fortune, working mainly as a Blackrock executive in Germany.

But Merz's political career is not over. Nine years later, when Merkel's long era was coming to an end, Merz suddenly returned. After defeats in 2018 from Merkel's appointed successor Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, and three years later from Armin Laschet, Merz finally managed to gain the upper hand over the Merkelist wing of the party in 2022.

Now the situation has changed, and Friedrich Merz's persistence seems to be about to bring him the final victory over Merkel. The legacy of the former chancellor is disintegrating in record time due to the hasty "liquidation" of energy dependence on Russia and the problems associated with Berlin's overly welcoming immigration policy. Merkel's liberal and centrist CDU is a thing of the past, while Merz's more conservative and right-wing Christian Democrats are preparing to face the future. In a country that they expect to change a lot. Has already changed.

Will the "firewall" survive

A visible symptom of these changes is the strengthening of the extreme right, which over the past three years has doubled its electoral intentions from 10 to 20% at the national level. Their enormous popularity has made the AfD a leading force in some eastern regions of the former socialist Germany, and the only thing that prevents them from coming to power at the moment is a cordon sanitaire or "firewall" made up of other parties. However, there are growing fears in the country that this wall may crack.

According to the results of the elections that have just taken place, it can be said that the fears are justified — almost throughout the entire territory of the former GDR, the "Alternative" won. At the municipal level, in the regions, according to the press, "AdG advisers work shoulder to shoulder with representatives of conservatives (or Social Democrats) on administrative issues outside the sphere of big politics."

The indirect adoption by Merz in January of votes from supporters of the "AfD" on the two issues described above is called by some simply an election calculation aimed at winning over a part of the electorate outraged by the problems of crime related to immigration. Scholz, on the other hand, interpreted the "accidental" cooperation of the CDU/CSU with the AdG as "the result of Mertz's outburst of anger." According to the outgoing chancellor, this has set a precedent, and now the "reckless temperament of the new chancellor" can lead to irreparable consequences.

"The adventure had the opposite effect," Scholz said on the public television channel ZDF. "There is no longer any hope that someone like him will not one day be elected chancellor by the votes of the AfD."

It is expected that after the elections Merz will try to form a coalition either with the Social Democrats as a junior partner or with the Greens. The possibility of a coalition with the extreme right, the leader of the Demochristians pointedly ruled out several times.

"We have made only one decision: no to you," Friedrich Merz told AFD leader Alice Weidel on television a few days before the election.

However, some fear that as soon as this taboo is broken (and this happens often in politics), the "firewall" will crack in the medium term, or even crumble altogether.

"The problem is not Friedrich Merz. The problem is conservative politicians in the federal states, who will be able to say that the party leader has already set an example for them by doing this, as an exception. And out of the many exceptions, a rule arises," says the Lambie mentioned above.

"I don't think he has any links with the AFD," Michael Friedman, a former political talk show host of Jewish origin and a long—time member of the CDU, who left the party after the joint votes of conservatives and far-right parties in the legislature, said in an interview with Die Zeit. "But now he has to prove it over and over again."

Face to face with Trump

Mertz will also have to prove that he is ready to solve international problems. In particular, dealing with the unpredictable Trump. The American president has already shown special hostility in his first term (the European press writes "hostility". — Approx. EADaily) to Germany, the country of his paternal ancestors, and a country that seems to be especially capable of acting on his nerves, whether because of its large exports to The United States or because of its reputation until recently as a calm, rational and peace-loving state.

In Europe, it is believed that "tycoon Elon Musk directly interfered in the elections by talking to the leader of the right-wing party Weidel on Radio X and taking part in the AfG party conference via video link." And Trump's vice President, Jay D. Vance, chastising the Europeans at the recent Munich Security Conference, made it clear that Germany will have a hard time.

"I am sure that I know how Americans think and how politics is done in The United States," Merz said on a television talk show a few weeks before the election, referring to his experience as an executive at Blackrock. — And I know one thing: Americans do not respect people who put themselves lower than they are. If you appear before Americans with a sense of self-esteem and clear ideas, they will treat you with respect. If you act like a dwarf, you will be treated like a dwarf."

In a few weeks, Merz will have to demonstrate whether he can force Trump to accept the German chancellor as an equal. Friedrich Merz already has the physical height to show that he is not a dwarf. Will the political be enough?