Who’s Friedrich Merz, the favourite to grow to be Germany’s new chancellor?

Friedrich Merz, migration hardliner and longtime rival of Angela Merkel, is predicted to grow to be Germany’s subsequent chancellor. His get together the Christian Democratic Union is main polls alongside its affiliate the Christian Social Union simply days earlier than the election.

Again in September, Merz was elected because the CDU’s get together’s designated candidate for chancellor on this 12 months’s federal elections, after main the group and heading the opposition CDU-CSU parliamentary group since 2022. The CSU is a regional get together which has dominated Bavarian politics for many years and kinds a union with the CDU at a federal stage.

Earlier than getting into politics, Merz, 69, studied regulation and first labored as a decide, then as a lawyer at Mayer Brown LLP. He has additionally held senior positions at varied main companies, together with BlackRock Germany and HSBC Trinkaus & Burkhardt, in addition to serving on the boards of EY Germany, Borussia Dortmund and the Deutsche Börse.

Merz is married with three youngsters. He reportedly owns two airplanes, which he pilots in his spare time.

Merz says that he joined the CDU when he was nonetheless in class, finally main the native department of the get together’s youth group. In 1989 he took on the position of member of the European Parliament for a five-year tenure earlier than becoming a member of Germany’s Bundestag for 15 years.

A lot of Merz’s political profession within the early 2000s was marked by a rivalry with Angela Merkel, with the 2 vying for management positions within the CDU in addition to of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Merz first grew to become chair after which deputy head of the latter group after 2000.

He resigned from this place in 2004, with observers on the time suggesting this was as a consequence of Merkel’s rise by way of the ranks.

Tensions between Merkel and Merz linger to at the present time, with the previous German chancellor final month criticizing the CDU chief for cooperating with the far-right Different fuer Deutschland on parliamentary votes.

Merz, just like the CDU, follows center-right coverage positions and is seen as a socially conservative, pro-business politician.

Merz has advocated for reducing taxes on incomes and for companies, alongside slicing bureaucratic purple tape to spice up companies and innovation and adapting the framework circumstances for business in Germany to spice up personal funding. He has additionally shared his aim to make Germany extra engaging for startups and has mentioned that he would create a brand new ministerial position to concentrate on digitalization and AI.

The CDU chief has additionally indicated that he would doubtlessly be open to reforming Germany’s extremely contested debt brake rule, which limits how a lot debt the federal government can tackle and restricts the federal authorities’s structural funds deficit.

Merz has been extremely vital of financial insurance policies below Olaf Scholz’ authorities, suggesting that they’re the reason for the nation’s stoop and calling for large shifts.

This stance has included criticism about financial insurance policies focusing an excessive amount of on local weather change, which Merz says he’ll change. Whereas he broadly acknowledges the local weather disaster as a difficulty, Merz has been skeptical about some actions taken to sort out it, for instance constructing wind generators.

On the international coverage entrance, Merz recommended throughout final weekend’s Munich Safety Convention that Germany ought to tackle a stronger management place inside the Europe and mentioned that the conflict in Ukraine should quickly come to an finish, whereas indicating that he can be open to additional weapon deliveries to the embattled nation.

Merz has nonetheless broadly dodged questions on plans for Germany’s defense spending amid the controversy about whether or not NATO members ought to increase their funding on this space.

A coverage difficulty that has gotten Merz into scorching water is immigration. He has advocated for heightened safety measures, elevated deportations and shaper border controls, criticizing Germany’s present asylum and migration insurance policies for being too relaxed and gradual shifting and linking them to violent assaults carried out within the nation by folks as a consequence of be deported.

The scenario got here to a head in January, when a non-binding movement spearheaded by Merz was backed by the AfD — marking the primary time in Germany’s post-war historical past {that a} majority was achieved with the assistance of the far proper.