Friedrich Merz, Germany’s Next Chancellor, Is Yesterday’s Man

Opinion|Germany Needs Something New. Instead It’s Getting This Guy.

Friedrich Merz didn’t waste time.

Having led his party, the Christian Democrats, to first place in Germany’s election last month, Mr. Merz swiftly assumed the mantle of chancellor-in-waiting. He urged the country to move quickly to address the challenges, both domestic and foreign, that threaten to overwhelm it. “The world,” he said, “is not waiting for us.”

He’s not wrong. Germany needs to get its act together, fast. The far-right Alternative for Germany, exploiting a shrinking economy and a widespread sense of malaise, came in second, winning 20 percent of the vote. The extreme right is now the strongest it has been since the end of World War II. President Trump’s rapprochement with Russia and castigation of Europe, meanwhile, threatens to upend the international order and Germany’s place in it. In the face of both tests, the country must at once renew and reorient itself.

The task calls for a leader with a fresh vision of the future. Unfortunately, that’s not Mr. Merz. Committed to tax breaks for the wealthy, harsh restrictions for migrants and cuts for welfare recipients, he is a throwback figure. His program amounts to an effort to turn back the clock to a time when the country could depend on cheap energy and plentiful exports to propel it on the world stage. Today, Germany is in urgent need of change. Instead it’s getting Mr. Merz: yesterday’s man, with yesterday’s ideas.

Born in 1955, Mr. Merz grew up in a Catholic family in the Sauerland, a staunchly conservative region in western Germany. As a teenager, he thought the ’68 generation of leftist activists were “crazy.” He worried, too, that the neo-Nazi National Democratic Party of Germany would make it into Parliament. By the time he joined the Christian Democrats’ youth organization at age 17, it was clear politics was his future. In 1989, after law school and a spell in the profession, he was elected to the European Parliament; five years later, he sat in the German Parliament.

He enjoyed a steady rise there, notably popularizing the concept of Leitkultur, a set of norms to which every immigrant should submit. But the top prize was blocked by his longstanding rival, Angela Merkel. After losing the leadership to her in a bitter power struggle in the early 2000s, he gradually shifted into the private sector, amassing a sizable fortune in the process. But Ms. Merkel’s departure from the party leadership gave him a chance at a comeback. On his third attempt, promising a much tougher line on crime and migration, he finally took control of the party in early 2022.

His tenure has been uneven. Jutta Falke-Ischinger, a co-author of an unofficial biography of Mr. Merz, describes him as someone who lacks “impulse control,” and it’s possible to see that waywardness in his leadership. He has made headlines with insults to minority groups, including Ukrainian refugees and Muslim children, resulting in more than one public apology. His sometimes absurd, baseless comments — claiming, for example, that rejected asylum seekers were taking all of the country’s dental appointments, leaving none for Germans — suggest someone happy to play into right-wing talking points.