N. Peter Kramer’s Weekly Column
He is safely in power now, but the political damage is there. The EU was waiting for a strong new German government, however, the Bundestag humiliated Merz, refusing to confirm him directly in office even after his coalition deal with the Social Democratic Party was made. You can’t call this the start of a confident stable government.
It was not until January 2022, four years after his return in politics, that Merz finally managed to become CDU leader. As opposition leader, he hammered the ‘Ampel coalition’ of SPD Prime Minister Olaf Scholz, he detested the government’s climate plans, pointed to the failing German economy and wanted very strong migration policies.
He took a gamble in relying on extreme right AfD votes to pass migration measures in the Bundestag before the election, predicting it would strengthen his party’s vote at the expense of the AfD. But see, the extreme right party achieved its best result in history with 21 percent. Merz’s Christian Democrats won indeed the elections , but with their second-worst result ever, just over 28 percent.
Merz then embarked on a complete volte-face. He said goodbye to the stringent budgetary policy that had been a dogma in the CDU for the past twenty year. Then Merz watered down his election promises to downgrade the strict climate plans of the previous government and softened his migration policies to get the Social Democrats on board of his new government. With success, after two votes in the Bundestag.
But with less success outside the Bundestag. Recent opinion polls show the continuing growth of the AfD and a serious further decline of Merz’ CDU.
