Meet Friedrich Merz, the trained pilot who will take the controls of Germany

Try, try until you succeed. That is the motto that Friedrich Merz seems to have adopted and it finally worked out for him.

After a day of polling — on Sunday (February 23) — Germany’s conservatives swept to victory, paving the way for their leader Friedrich Merz to become the next chancellor, followed by the far-right AfD in second place after record gains.

Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) won 28.5 per cent of the vote, followed by the AfD at 20 per cent, with outgoing Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) a distant third at a historic low of 16 per cent.

Shortly after the win, Merz speaking to the public said, “For me, the absolute priority will be to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.

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Now, as Merz tries to cobble up an alliance — he may reach out to the SPD or to the Greens — we take a closer look at who is he and what are his policies.

Early life and career of Friedrich Merz

Merz was born on November 11, 1955 in west Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia. As per The Economist, his family were conservative Catholic lawyers.

Trained as a lawyer, Merz was elected to the European Parliament in 1989 and then to the Bundestag – Germany’s Lower House.

He grew close to the CDU’s powerful late Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble. By 2000, he was chairman of the chairmanship of the CDU/Christian Social Union parliamentary group.

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However, Merz lost out in a power struggle against former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who took over the CDU leadership in 2002 as the party struggled to rebuild after Helmut Kohl’s chancellorship. Merkel went on to become Germany’s second-longest serving post-war chancellor while Merz – humiliated, and his influence greatly diminished – opted for a hiatus from politics.

Merz leaves politics

He left parliament in 2009 and for over a decade pursued a successful career in the private sector. He also trained to be a pilot — today, he owns two airplanes, which he flies himself in his free time.

He worked as a corporate lawyer for a major Duesseldorf firm, built up a personal fortune and held senior positions on the boards of US investment firm BlackRock and multiple other companies.

Merz would often slam his rival Merkel in public appearances. Merz has also been quoted as calling Merkel’s leadership as “godawful,” as per DW. He has criticised her legacy, from her open-door policy to migrants to her accommodating stance towards Russia.

Return to politics

In 2018, Merz shocked many by returning to the CDU in 2018. His powerful oratory won over many within the party after Merkel resigned as CDU chief.

However, he failed to overcome the final hurdle and the party instead went with Merkel’s designated heir Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. However, after Kramp-Karrenbauer stepped down in 2020, Merz tried again. This time too, election gods weren’t with him and he was defeated by Armin Laschet, the centrist premier of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW).

Then, in 2021, Merz finally saw his chance. Laschet had led the CDU/CSU to a landslide loss in the 2021 election. Merz again stood for leadership and won in January 2022 and became the party’s confirmed candidate for chancellor last year.

Merz’s policies and beliefs

Merz, a traditional conservative, has campaigned with confidence, saying is time for “politics that would see Germany get ahead once again.”

He also argues that, unless Germany wants to one day see the AfD win outright, its centrist parties must tackle the thorny issue of immigration head-on.

He has backed a tougher immigration policy and pledged to reverse marijuana legalisation and Germany’s phase-out of nuclear power.

However, he has also sparked anger by labelling the sons of Muslim immigrants “little pashas” and accusing Ukrainian war refugees of “social welfare tourism” only to apologise later. As per The Economist, he also accused refugees of taking all the dentists’ appointments. He is also unpopular with young people and women.

Some within the party think his rhetoric is far too close to the AfD.

Last August, DW quoted Merz as saying at the CDU political convention, “Today, we have to agree with those who say that the problem of right-wing extremism in Germany has been underestimated for years, and we should be very careful not to repeat the same mistake when it comes to the instigators of political Islam, who openly threaten us and who are not prepared to accept the rules of our country and peaceful coexistence in Germany.”

Merz further told the DW, “Those who are really integrated and willing to meet all the requirements we are having here in this country, legally, culturally, that these people are really welcome [but] those who are, for example, asking for Sharia state or for the caliphate state do not have a place in Germany.”

On foreign policy, Merz places him within the pro-Nato camp. He previously slammed Scholz for refusing to give Ukraine Taurus cruise missiles. He has been an unstinting supporter of Ukraine.

A rocky road for Merz

Merz has won the election, but it’s not an easy road ahead. He will have to forge a new coalition government in Europe’s top economy, an often drawn-out process he has vowed to complete by Easter.

To build a majority, he could reach out to his defeated partner and predecessor Olaf Scholz, who apologised for his party’s “bitter” defeat. Merz could also approach the Greens, who scored 12 per cent, although the CSU has so far rejected this.

Another potential partner, as, the AFP reports, is the small FDP — which sparked the November breakup of Scholz’s government — stared down the barrel of narrowly missing the five-per cent hurdle to return to parliament. This would impact the complex parliamentary arithmetic, as would the fate of the far-left BSW, which was just below the threshold late Sunday, at 4.9 per cent.

If the BSW eventually scrapes in, this will mean Merz needs two coalition allies — raising the spectre of yet another ideologically diverse alliance, like the failed alliance that was led by Scholz.

With inputs from agencies