Source: AFP
Chancellor Friedrich Merz took power vowing to get Germany back on its feet politically after a turbulent period, boost the country’s international standing and kickstart a moribund economy.
But after a year in office, his coalition is beset by infighting, Europe’s top economy is still weak, and some commentators are already predicting he will not see out a full term.
“Who comes after Merz?”, “Is Merz on the brink?”, read recent headlines in the German press, while just 15 percent of respondents quizzed in a recent Forsa poll said they were satisfied with his work.
It is a heavy blow for the politician from the centre-right CDU party, who achieved a long-standing ambition when he was sworn in as chancellor on May 6 last year.
Merz, now 70, first made a bid to lead the CDU in the early 2000s, but was beaten to the job by his longtime rival, Angela Merkel, who went on to lead Germany from 2005 to 2021.
After taking time out and working in business, he launched a comeback, finally becoming chancellor after his party won last year’s elections, forming a coalition government with the centre-left SPD.
But he got off to a rocky start when it took him two parliamentary votes to finally become chancellor – a first in post-war Germany.
It proved to be a bad omen. Clashes between his CDU/CSU alliance and the SPD have escalated, evoking memories of the fractious three-party coalition under Merz’s predecessor, Olaf Scholz, which collapsed in 2024.
Tensions with Trump
Asked last month if he was counting on his own unwieldy coalition lasting until elections scheduled for 2029, Merz responded: “Nobody can guarantee anything”.
Merz often adds to his own problems, critics contend, pointing to his sometimes forthright remarks and reportedly hot temper.
He was forced to deny recently that he had shouted at his deputy, the SPD’s Lars Klingbeil, during tense negotiations over proposed reforms.
Merz has also caused unease with other comments, such as accusing Germans of being workshy and claiming that migration had caused “problems in the urban landscape”.
“It is a massive problem that he is so impulsive,” SPD parliamentary leader Matthias Miersch told the Bild newspaper.
“You can’t manage the office of the chancellor like that.”
His comments have also stoked tensions with US President Donald Trump.
Merz last week provoked a serious spat with Trump when he told school students that Iran was “humiliating” the United States in the Middle East war.
Trump subsequently announced that the United States will withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany, although Berlin has attempted to downplay the move, insisting that it was expected.
The president also hiked tariffs on European cars, hitting Germany’s flagship auto industry.
Green lawmaker Max Lucks accused Merz of “thinking out loud”, telling AFP: “There is absolutely no clear line.”
Industry losing patience
German industry leaders – who had hoped that Merz, a former business executive, could make real progress on boosting the stagnant economy – are also losing patience.
“After a year, business is deeply unsettled,” Peter Leibinger, head of the Federation of German Industries said last week.
“There is no comprehensive plan for concrete reforms that would boost growth and competitiveness. The delay threatens to pose an existential threat to the country’s position as an industrial hub.”
As public discontent grows, the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is gaining in popularity, overtaking his party in recent polls.
Mindful of Germany’s dark Nazi past, mainstream parties in the country have so far ruled out working with the far right.
But Lucks said the chances of a future CDU-AfD alliance were growing.
“It’s truly worrying to see the rifts that have now opened up within the CDU, and to see people who, at heart, are preparing for a future CDU-AfD coalition,” he told AFP.
*Published on Euractiv.com
By: N. Peter Kramer