Who’s Friedrich Merz? Germany’s Christian Democratic Union chief who flirted with far proper

With the exit polls in, Friedrich Merz – chief of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) – is about to turn out to be Germany’s subsequent Chancellor.

His get together is projected to win round 29% of the vote. The query now’s who he may type a coalition with.

Described by his supporters as an antidote to Europe’s disaster of confidence, Merz, 69, is a well-known face to his get together’s previous guard.

Politically, he has by no means come throughout as exhilarating. And but he guarantees to offer Germany with stronger management and deal with a lot of his nation’s issues inside 4 years.

His explosive bid final month to tighten migration guidelines with the assist of far-right votes in parliament revealed a person prepared to gamble by breaking a significant taboo.

It additionally marked yet one more clear break from the CDU’s extra centrist stance beneath his former get together rival Angela Merkel.

Though Merz in the end failed to vary the regulation, he had launched a lightning bolt into an election marketing campaign triggered by the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s authorities late final 12 months.

Famously sidelined by Merkel earlier than she grew to become chancellor, he give up parliament totally to pursue a profitable collection of company jobs and was written off as yesterday’s man.

However he now seems set to clinch the job he has coveted for therefore lengthy.

On 23 January, one month earlier than Germany’s snap federal election, folks gathered in one in every of Berlin’s five-star accommodations to listen to Merz give a overseas coverage speech.

The excitement across the “ballroom” within the Resort de Rome is not precisely electrical – however it’s a far cry from 20 years in the past, when his political profession regarded over.

Merz can also be a licensed pilot, who drew criticism in 2022 for flying to the north German island of Sylt in his non-public aircraft for the marriage of fellow politician Christian Lindner.

As he takes to the stage within the Resort de Rome, there’s well mannered applause for the chief of Germany’s conservative CDU opposition, who’re constantly forward within the polls.

Tall, slim, in a swimsuit and glasses, Merz cuts a peaceful, standard, business-like determine as he tries to undertaking a readiness for energy.

However it has been a winding journey to get thus far.

Merz was born within the west German city of Brilon in 1955 right into a outstanding conservative, Catholic household.

His father served as an area choose, as does Friedrich Merz’s spouse Charlotte to this present day.

The youthful Merz joined the CDU whereas nonetheless at college.

In an interview 25 years in the past with German newspaper Tagesspiegel he laid declare to a wilder youth than his strait-laced CV may counsel.

Amongst his misadventures, he described racing by way of the streets on a bike, hanging out with associates by a chip stand and taking part in the cardboard recreation Doppelkopf behind the category.

A teenage get together he referenced ended up with a bunch of scholars taking a collective pee within the faculty aquarium, in line with Der Spiegel journal.

There’s some scepticism that the teenage Merz was a lot of a rabble-rouser. A former classmate recalled that the younger Friedrich’s disruptive behaviour extra typically amounted to easily wanting “the final phrase”.

Whether or not on or off the file, individuals who have recognized him have instructed me he enjoys a beer and may certainly be enjoyable, although few have been capable of provide an anecdote as an example this.

After faculty, he went on to navy service earlier than finding out regulation and marrying fellow pupil Charlotte Gass in 1981.

The couple have three youngsters.

For just a few years, Merz labored as a lawyer however he at all times had his eye on politics and was elected to the European Parliament in 1989, aged 33.

“We have been each fairly younger and really recent and as an example unspoilt,” says Dagmar Roth-Behrendt, who grew to become an MEP on the identical time for the centre-left Social Democratic Occasion of Germany (SPD).

She discovered the younger Merz to be severe, dependable, trustworthy and well mannered.

Even humorous – a high quality that she feels is much less apparent now: “I assume the quantity of bruises over time may need hardened him a bit.”

However did he come throughout early in his profession as a possible chancellor?

“I’d have most likely have stated no, no approach. Come on, you have to be kidding!”

But everybody knew him to be deeply formidable and Merz quickly made the swap from EU politics to Germany’s nationwide parliament, the Bundestag, in 1994.

He rose by way of the ranks, touted as a expertise on the get together’s extra right-wing, traditionalist faction.

“He is a splendid speaker and a profound thinker,” says Klaus-Peter Willsch, a CDU member of the Bundestag who has recognized him for greater than 30 years.

“A fighter,” says Willsch, evidenced by the truth that Merz made three makes an attempt to guide his get together.

His first two failures, in 2018 and January 2021, may be learn as an indication of his battle to woo the grassroots.

However it was again within the early noughties, when his ambitions have been initially derailed, that he misplaced out to Angela Merkel in a celebration energy battle.

Merkel, the understated quantum chemist from the previous communist east, and Merz, the overtly assured lawyer from the west, by no means a lot noticed eye-to-eye.

Merz glosses over this bitter episode in a quick autobiographical publish on the CDU web site, saying that by 2009 he had determined to go away parliament to “make room for reflection”.

His years of reflection concerned forging a profession in finance and company regulation – turning into a boardroom govt at varied worldwide companies and, apparently, a millionaire.

It could be greater than a decade earlier than he returned to parliament, the place he has since sought to tear up Merkel’s extra centrist doctrine on CDU conservatism.

A marked second of political severance got here on the finish of January, when Friedrich Merz pushed by way of a non-binding movement on harder immigration guidelines, by counting on votes from the far-right Different für Deutschland (AfD).

He insisted there had been no direct collaboration with the AfD, however his transfer led to mass protests and was twice condemned by none aside from Merkel herself.

These have been uncommon public interventions by the girl who dominated Germany for 16 years.

Detractors stated it was an unforgivable election gambit, however supporters insisted Merz was, in reality, looking for to lure folks cleverly from the far proper.

He has risked alienating extra average elements of the voters earlier than, voting within the Nineteen Nineties in opposition to a invoice that included the criminalisation of marital rape.

He later defined that he thought-about marital rape to already be a criminal offense, and it was different points within the invoice that he objected to.

Polls counsel he’s not particularly in style amongst younger folks and girls – however Klaus-Peter Willsch believes the image painted of him in German media is unfair.

“I had him a number of occasions in my constituency,” he tells me. “Afterwards, ladies come up and say he is a pleasant man.”

Charlotte Merz has likewise come to his defence, telling the Westfalenpost: “What some folks write about my husband’s picture of ladies is solely not true.”

She says their marriage has been one in every of mutual assist: “We each took care of one another’s jobs and divided the childcare in such a approach that it was appropriate with our skilled obligations.”

Regardless of the critiques, one EU diplomat instructed me Brussels was “anxiously awaiting his arrival”.

“It is time to transfer on from this German impasse and get that motor operating.”