He is a politician from the CDU of the last century. A fighter and stubborn conservative. He wants to win and plays as a striker, never in defense. Friedrich Merz, 69 years old, former lawyer, It will be the next chancellor in Germany. And he made three promises: A narrow on migrants, the economic relaunch of the industrial locomotive jammed in the stagnation and recovery of Berlin’s authority in Europe. There is also a cross -country guarantee: it will not collaborate with the ultra -decay of Alice Weidel. But on this we have already betrayed once.
With today’s vote, the Germans allowed the multimilionary lawyer to win the ten -year bet against Angela Merkel: the rival of the former Bundeskanzlerin, who returned operational on the field immediately after his exit on the scene, in the end he managed to take the party and to guide the country. And so also his mentor finds revenge: the former Mastiff of the Eurozone Wolfgang Schaeuble, who disappeared in 2023, that the legacy of Helmut Kohl was snatched by a Girl from the DDR, whose talent had been underestimated by everyone.
To take Friedrich Merz, Catholic, married to Charlotte, three children, 2 meters high and a flight patent, was the Chancellor “Ossi”, over twenty years ago. And the retired leader, who has just published his memoirs, has not had a hesitation in taking the distances from him even one step away from the elections, criticizing the opening to the ultra -decay on the IFD on immigration. An axis (failed) that led hundreds of thousands of people to demonstrate against him, in front of the Konrad Adenauer Haus, in the capital. In the middle of the election campaign Merz appeared besieged, for a sensational calculation error, due to the incurable vice of instinctively acting. Once again, however, he did not lose heart. He has taken a step back and insured in every way that in the future will not accept votes from alternatives Fuer Deutschland, the extremist extremist party by Elon Musk and JD Vance endorsement.
Merz expressed clear words even looking at Washington: With Trump we must not beggar, but “agreeing in Europe on a common strategy as quickly as possible” and “developing its strength”. With him at the helm, he assured, “Germany will have a loud voice again in Europe”. On the profile of this elderly new leader there are several reserves. Merz has never held administrative roles. He was not minister, nor governor, nor mayor. His experience is that of a parliamentarian who never really grew up, despite the early political vocation. Member of the young Christian Democrats, in the Junge Union, was MEP from 1989 to 1994, soon entered the Bundestag and quickly became group leader of the CDU from 2000 to 2002. Until the clash with Angela Merkel, who put him in the corner. Abandoned the scene, Merz was a business lawyer in the USA, living many months a year overseas and on other continents. He was at the top of the BlackRock investment management giant and president of Atlantik Bruecke. Then again the turning point. When Merkel, overwhelmed by the criticisms for having opened the German borders under the pressure of the exodus along the Balkan route, announced that he sold the presidency of the party and not to recover as a chancellery, the eternal opponent suddenly shone out of nowhere. Even in a relatively free field, however, he had to sweat a lot. To conquer the presidency of the party, he passed through two defeats, against Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and against Armin Lascat. In 2021 he entered Parliament again and the following year he was elected to lead the CDU.
“He is too emotional” and he realized the end of Schengen, “Helmut Kohl would have turned to the tomb at the idea,” Merkel’s biographer, Ralph Bollmann, told him at Ansa. “He still has to learn to compromise And it is true that women don’t like it, but it’s not a macho », Daniel Goffart defends him, who wrote a book about him and believes him to do it Well, especially in foreign policy. The race is over, today he won it. And the test of the leadership is open, in an astonished Germany in the face of the scenario of a change of the world order.