Friedrich Merz
Friedrich Merz is a prominent German politician and leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He served as the CDU's federal chairman since January 2022 and leads the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, positioning him as the Leader of the Opposition. Merz, who long hoped to become chancellor, is a millionaire former corporate lawyer who promises a return to his CDU party's conservative roots as an alternative to the far right. More than any other leading politician of his generation, he embodied the conservative and pro-business traditions of the CDU/CSU.
Merz has waited 25 years to become German chancellor. Merz was a young fiscal policy specialist when he rose to the position of chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the winter of 2000, amidst the turmoil of the CDU donations affair. In 2022, he ceded the position to Angela Merkel, who was at that time the national chairwoman of the CDU. It was not until the Merkel era was over that he came into his own again politically. Merz was elected the next leader of the CDU in the first general poll of the party's membership, held in December 2021, after having tried and failed to win the position in late 2018 and early 2021.
Merz was born on November 11, 1955 in Brilon in the Hochsauerland region, where he grew up and went to school. He is married to a judge and is the father of three adult children. After studying law in Bonn and then working for an association, Friedrich Merz never gave up his work as a lawyer. This ensured his professional independence. He began in 1986 as a speaker at the Federal Association of the Chemical Industry (VCI) in Bonn. From 2005 to the end of 2021, Friedrich Merz worked as a senior counsel at the law firm Mayer Brown LLP. He was also a member of a supervisory board.
Friedrich Merz has been passionately involved in politics for over 45 years. Merz's political career began in 1989 when he was elected to the European Parliament. He transitioned to the German Bundestag in 1994, representing the Hochsauerlandkreis constituency. From 2000 to 2002, he chaired the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, serving as the opposition leader during Chancellor Gerhard Schröder's tenure. After twenty years in parliament, he wanted to devote himself more to his trained profession as a lawyer after the 2009 federal election. His passion and interest in politics remained, but the change in perspective in recent years sharpened his view of politics.
After a hiatus from frontline politics, during which he worked as a corporate lawyer and held various board positions, Merz returned to the political arena in 2018. On September 26, 2021, Friedrich Merz was re-elected to the German Bundestag with 40.41 percent of the vote. There he represents the Hochsauerlandkreis constituency as a directly elected member of parliament. With 95.33 percent of the votes, the delegates of the 34th Federal Party Congress elected Friedrich Merz as chairman of the CDU Germany in December 2021, assuming office in January 2022. Since February 15, 2022, Friedrich Merz has also been chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag.
In September 2024, the party executives of the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), nominated Merz as their candidate for Chancellor in the upcoming 2025 federal elections. This decision underscores his significant influence within the party and his role in shaping its future direction.
Merz is known for his economically liberal and socially conservative views. He advocates for free-market policies, reduced regulation, and lower taxes to enhance Germany's competitiveness. On immigration, he supports stricter border controls and emphasizes the importance of integrating immigrants into German culture. Merz also maintains a strong transatlantic orientation, valuing robust German-U.S. relations and supporting continued assistance to Ukraine amid ongoing conflicts.
Merz wrote October 5, 2024 "With his war, Putin is destroying a political order in Europe that we built together with Russia and not against Russia after 1990. Europe and NATO have not and will not have provoked or violated any treaties that could even remotely justify starting such a war against Ukraine. The changes in the political assessment of its own role are solely the responsibility of Russia, a country that, since the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, is still struggling to maintain its importance as a world power and a superpower. Economic weight is simply far too small for a world power, and for a superpower, nuclear capabilities are the only decisive factor - at least in terms of self-perception, but also in terms of the fear-inducing effect on the rest of the world. If the West backs down from this threat, Russia will have won and will have an appetite for more. If Ukraine stands firm and the West continues to support it, Russia will see that further military force is pointless."
Merz wrote November 2, 2024 "The economic crisis in which our country finds itself is affecting more and more sectors. The key industries of the German economy are particularly affected, the automotive industry as well as the chemical industry, the steel industry, the construction industry, the electrical industry, mechanical engineering and many others. In large parts, the framework conditions for the German economy are no longer competitive..... The "German business model", namely low-cost consumer goods and intermediate products from all over the world, cheap oil and gas, especially from Russia, high-quality exports all over the world and guarantees for our security from the USA, this decades-long model of success for our country is now finally coming to an end.... The strengths still lie in the performance of many companies and in the willingness of employees to work. However, the costs of bureaucracy, energy and taxes have now reached a level that is simply no longer sustainable for many companies.... The companies that can do so will shift their investments abroad even more. But those that cannot, like almost all of Germany's middle class, and the employees in Germany whose prosperity can only be secured in Germany, have a right to expect that more is done to save companies and jobs..."
As of November 2024, Merz was actively preparing for the forthcoming federal elections, aiming to lead the CDU/CSU alliance back into government. His leadership marks a shift towards more conservative policies within the party, distinguishing his approach from that of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.
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