Two decades ago, before Friedrich Merz returned from the private sector to win the German Foreign Ministry, he accepted an invitation to a meeting of the French foreign legion in Corsica. At the last moment, the organizers asked him to reach the road of the parade not by road or rail, but by parachute.
Mr. Merz, then corporate lawyer, had never jumped from a plane. But an assistant partner recently recalled that Mr. Merz did not hesitate. He made the jump, successful, but with a bit difficult landing.
Now 69 years and a politician, Mr. Merz is trying a much more precarious leap with a similar risk of stumbling.
On Tuesday, Mr. Merz, who has no executive experience in the government, will become the tenth chancellor of Germany. He will take office at the most challenging moment for the nation to spray the reunification of Eastern and Western Germany 35 years ago.
The new chancellor and his coalition government, led by its central Christian democrats, will land in a series of national crises, including a stagnant economy and an frayed relationship with the United States.
An ascending nationalist party, the anti -immigrant alternative for Germany, or AFD, which German national intelligence has just classified as extremist, has surpassed Merz and its conventional political counterparts in some surveys.
In the months after his party, the elections won in February, Mr. Merz has been aggressive when addressing those challenges.
He has criticized President Trump and questioned the stability of American democracy, and has curled out with foreign counterparts in an effort to lead a newly muscular Europe. The key campaign promise quickly broke on the fiscal restriction, reducing an agreement with the rivals of the central left to relax the sacred limits of Germany in government loans to spend “whatever it is necessary” in national defense.
And despite joining the AFD in an effort to approve new immigration restrictions shortly before the elections, he has promised to avoid them in Parliament once more. He has also reversed a promise to reject asylum seekers.
Mr. Merz’s supporters say that the movements are the distinctive seal or an agile politician with the potential to meet the great problems that concern the German public: growth, defense, immigration.
“I think it’s extremely well prepared, very deep and reflective,” said John P. Schmitz, an attached lawyer of the White House under George Hw Bush. Mr. Schmitz helped hire Mr. Merz to work in the German offices of the law firm of Chicago Mayer Brown and left the plane in Corsica with Mr. Merz around 2005.
But others think that Mr. Merz struggles to plan more than one step forward, which leads him to break the promises. That, they say, has reduced its popularity.
Their excursions in spending and migration have alienated many of their basic conservative voters. Mr. Merz and his party have fallen into the surveys from the elections, and the AFD has even taken with them in some surveys. It is starting with one of the lowest approach ratings of any German leader in the modern era.
“There is this old saying:” Do what you do, act wisely and consider the end, “said Ruprecht Polenz, a former secretary general of Mr. Merz’s party.” This thought, “he added,” I feel that it is not his main strength. “
Mr. Schmitz rules out such criticism, saying that Mr. Merz’s ability to be flexible is a sign of his leadership.
In the capital, Mr. Merz is known for its charm and ability to warm new ideas. Friends sometimes complain that he is too heavy about the last person to talk to him before making a great decision, but who makes that decision, hate being a challenge. That has caused critics to start it or stubbornness.
In 2020, Mr. Merz of 6 feet and 6 inches gave an interview in which he was asked about the perception that he was arrogant. “My height alone is, or of course, a potential objective for such prejudices,” he said. “Speak physically, I despise many people, so it is just a small step to” belittle them. “
Former corporate lawyer with significant wealth, Merz has promised a more conservative course both in the country and in the party inherited by Angela Merkel, who left the Foreign Ministry three and a half years ago.
This reflects in part its background in the Sauerland region of the rich west of Germany, a region that defines its policy and personality. Duration in his campaign, Mr. Merz ran on the slogan “More Sauerland for Germany”, evoking the image of the region as a heart of the country.
Every two years he attends a ritual dating from medieval era in the picturesque city of Brilon, where he was born and grew, in which local men walk through the borders of the city before meeting for a party in the fields.
“This is what distinguishes it: it has always remained closely related to its homeland and knows where it comes from,” said Niklas Frigger, Brillon’s deputy vical, which is from Mr. Merz’s party.
Mr. Merz also arrives in the city every several weeks, usually a Sunday, to drink coffee with his parents, who, at 97 and 101, recently moved to a high -level house, residents say. His wife, Charlotte Merz, is the main judge of a local court in the city of Sauerland de Arnsberg, where they live, and have three adult children.
The new chancellor, who has talked about being wild when he was young before changing things and going to university, began his political career in 1989 in the then European Parliament. He soon moved to Berlin, where he quickly climbed the ranks of Christian Democrats, noticed for his leadership and speech qualities.
In the early 2000s, after losing a struggle of power against Mrs. Merkel, Merz moved away from politics and began a career in corporate law, advising customers who wanted to establish their businesses in Germany. Mr. Merz served in multiple meetings, including that of the American investment firm Blackrock, before returning to politics after Merkel announced her retirement.
Duration in his electoral campaign, Mr. Merz tried to take advantage of a yearning for a time when Germany’s economy was booming, the infrastructure was new and the bureaucracy worked.
But the challenges increased for him, calling much of his attention.
Despite ending first in the February elections, Mr. Merz’s options were limited because the game had worked badly. He only had a plausible coalition partner, the Social Democrats, who had led the extremely unpopular previous government and registered a minimum record for their party in February.
To ensure his votes for military spending and more, Mr. Merz delivered an unusually large number or cabinet stalls to his partner Junior. He affirmed his plans on immigration, including his promise to reject asylum seekers on the border.
Mr. Merz has expressed the hope of specifying a positive relationship with Trump, but the allies say that it has been increasingly disenchanted by a series of actions by the US administration. Those included votes to withdraw US troops in Europe and a speech by vice president JD Vance in Munich in what attacked Europeans in “freedom of expression” and warned them that they stop marking parts such as the department.
Mr. Merz was also surprised by the captured that Trump and Mr. Vance gave Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian President and an Allied partner, in the Oval office. “In my opinion, this was not a spontaneous reaction to Zelensky’s statements, but rather an intentional climb of tensions that provide the meeting in the oval office,” Merz said at that time.
Merz has increasingly retired against the Trump administration, warning the Germans who must assume responsibility for their own security. “Do you seriously believe that an American government will agree with NATO continues as before?” Hi, he asked legislators in March.
Even many of those who have criticized Mr. Merz’s leadership style have taken over their position to the United States.
“I think it really understands how the global situation has changed and what is changing in the United States,” said Mr. Pollenz, former Secretary General of Mr. Merz’s party. “It is a firm defender of transatlantic relationships and will certainly try to maintain and stabilize all relations between Germany, Europe and the United States the best you can. But it is not under illusions about the difficulty of the task that is coming.”
Tatiana Firsova Berlin contributed reports.
