The 69-year-old CDU leader Friedrich Merz is a major favourite for the German chancellorship after Sunday’s snap election.
Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party leader and election front-runner has waited a long time to reach this point – one step away from the German chancellorship.
The 69-year-old has consistently been ahead in the polls ever since the incumbent Chancellor Olaf Scholz lost a confidence vote in December last year, resulting in an early election this coming Sunday 23 February.
Previously a long-time rival of more centrist former Chancellor Angela Merkel, the relatively right-leaning Merz became CDU party chairman in January 2022 and became its designated candidate for chancellor in September last year.
Looking to steer the party in a more conservative direction, he has made curbing irregular migration a central issue in its politics.
Merz studied law, and initially worked as a lawyer. Having joined the CDU while still in school, he always had his eye on politics, and was elected to the European Parliament in 1989. He then switched to domestic politics after becoming an German member of parliament in 1994.
Rising through the ranks of the party of the next few years, Merz was eventually sidelined within the party after a power struggle with Angela Merkel. He decided to leave politics, and spent a number of years working in senior positions in the private sector, such as at BlackRock Germany and HSBC Trinkhaus & Burkhardt, and also served on the boards of EY Germany and football team Borussia Dortmund.
His return to parliament more than a decade later was marked by his attempts to shift the CDU towards what has been characterised as a more socially conservative and pro-business stance.
When it comes to immigration, Merz made waves in January when he pushed through a non-binding motion that advocated for stricter immigration rules, such as border controls and increased deportations, despite criticism that this could break both German and EY asylum law.
Perhaps more pertinently when it comes to his potential willingness to enter into politically risky territory, Merz was widely lambasted for backtracking on his position of not working with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and breaching the so-called “firewall” against the far-right party to pass the measures. He later ruled out any future cooperation with the far-right.
With the German economy currently in dire straits, Merz has often criticised the economic policies put forward by Scholz’s government, blaming them for the country’s economic slump. He is a proponent of reducing social benefits and downsizing government employment. Controversially, he also supports tax cuts, which would reduce government revenue, while also being open to cutting government subsidies.
When it comes to foreign policy, Friedrich Merz was assertive during last week’s Munich Security Conference, saying that Germany should play a bigger leadership role in the EU, while also pledging support for Ukraine and backing its accession to NATO.
Merz is married and has three children. An aviation enthusiast, he reportedly owns two aeroplanes which he flies in his spare time.
