The curator Friedrich Merz is the new German chancellor. He was chosen on Tuesday, May 6 in the second round, by the German Bundestag agents. A few hours before, he had not been chosen in the first vote, a sign of the immense pressure facing those who are preparing to lead a country weakened by crises.
Such failure for a candidate Chancellor had no precedents in the political history of the postwar period of Germany, illustrating the fragility of the Christian Democrat.
In a completely unexpected scenario, the elected official of 69 had not obtained the required majority of 316 votes, only collected 310, in the first vote by the 630 elected officials of Bundestag, the lower room of Parliament.
He reached the top of the legislative elections at the end of February, Friedrich Merz, who has already sealed an alliance with the Centro Left SPD party, was finally chosen an absolute majority for his second attempt, with 325 votes of a total of 630 deputies.
“Anti-Merkel”
Born on November 11, 1955, Friedrich Merz made his policy in the 1980s when he was elected European deputy, then a member of the German Bundestag. After exercising a brief presidency of the CDU/CSU conservative block, he was expelled by Angela Merkel in 2002.
The “Anti-Merkel” label will always adhere to its skin, since its failure to climb to the top of German politics will be attributed to what was the chancellor of 2005 to its resignation in 2021.
Billionaire and rookie
Friedrich Merz appears from the policy to devote himself to his business lawyer and occupies responsibility positions in companies such as the German HSBC, the Stadler of Swiss Equilares Equipment Constructor or the Giant of the Blackrock investment funds.
Multimillonario and liberal convinced, then ensures that it was not “rich”, but belonging to the “upper middle class,” he explained to the Daily Bild in 2018. Since then, this has won criticism from the left.
Despite a very long political career, Friedrich Merz has never ruled, nor as a minister, even as mayor. Therefore, he would be the first rookie among German Chancellor.
European convinced
The former Eurodiput, Friedrich Merz continued throughout his political career to defend the relations of Europe and Franco-German. It was also in France that he had to take his first official visit on Wednesday, May 7. Because relations between Paris and Berlin have been notoriously fresh in recent years.
Emmanuel Macron and Olaf Scholz showed opposite temperaments, omnipresent to one, silent for the other. And Paris barely hid his impatience to open a new page within a historically essential Franco-German couple for the European Union.
In the newspaper Le Monde, he explained that he would spend “60 to 70 % of his time on European questions” during his first year at the Foreign Ministry. “The European Union awaits us,” he wrote again on X on Monday, May 5.
Flirt with AFD
The training lawyer also flirted with the AFD Right’s extreme match voting with him a migration resolution in the Bundestag last January. This unprecedented maneuver since the postwar period, which cost him votes in the elections, had caused great demonstrations of protest in the country. Since then, he has said that he excludes all cooperation despite Trump’s exhortations and his relatives.
But he has not hesitated in the past to use a similar rhetoric in migrants, deal with “small pachas” of alleged young thugs and denounce a “social tourism” in Germany of Ukrainian refugees fleeing from the Russian bombs.
Friedrich Merz had promised a clear turn of the right, including the hardening of migratory rules. From his choice at the head of the CDU in 2022, he announced a complete reversal of the generous policy of inherited reception of Angela Merkel (2005-2021).
Who promised to “return his pride” to Germany will also have to find the parade to resolve the deep crisis of the industrial model crossed by the country.
Source: BFM TV
