Berlin: Friedrich Merz is poised to become Germany’s 10th post-World War II chancellor after his centre-right Union bloc secured victory in the country’s national election with 28.6 per cent of the votes. The 69-year-old lawyer’s path to Germany’s highest political office comes after a long and sometimes interrupted political career.
Merz’s conservatives won 208 seats in the 630-seat Bundestag, while the AfD won 152. The three parties in the former governing coalition lost seats, with the SDP falling to 120 seats and the Greens to 85. The Left party got 64 seats, while the left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance came in just under the 5 per cent hurdle. The results released by the electoral authority showed Merz’s Christian Democrats and the centre-left Social Democrats winning a combined majority of seats in the national legislature after small parties failed to make the electoral threshold. That gives Merz the best chance of becoming the country’s next chancellor. He said on election night that he hopes to form a government by Easter at the latest.
He has ruled out a coalition with the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which is now the country’s second-largest party after its best showing ever. For the time being, outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, whose Social Democratic party suffered a stinging defeat, will remain.Merz’s political trajectory was derailed in the early 2000s by Angela Merkel, who pushed him aside as leader of the Union’s parliamentary group. This led to a period away from active politics beginning in 2009, during which he worked as a lawyer and headed the supervisory board of investment manager BlackRock’s German branch.
His political comeback began after Merkel stepped down as Christian Democratic Union (CDU) leader in 2018. After two unsuccessful attempts, Merz was finally elected party leader and later cemented his position by becoming leader of the Union’s parliamentary group following the 2021 election defeat.