Merz’s Last Step to Power. To Win or Not to Win

Merz is facing a critical moment in his bid to become German chancellor, as disgruntled fellow conservatives worry he’s making too many concessions.

After caving in to demands from the Social Democrats — his prospective ruling partner — and the Greens to secure a landmark spending package last week, his allies in the Christian Democratic Union are demanding Merz take a harder line in coalition negotiations.

Tax and migration policies are core to the conservatives’ agenda and differences with the SPD threaten to hobble talks over a governing alliance. Alongside these issues, Merz aims to repeal a heating law passed by Scholz’s administration and wants to overhaul the welfare system.

Senior officials from the CDU and the SPD will meet this weekend ahead of crunch talks next week.

“We are aware of people’s many concerns; above all we’re asking a lot of our own voters these days (...) We need a strong economy, we need strong Germany that will Europe to the victory,”

Merz said in a video posted on social media.

“We’re working every day to make the right decisions for Germany,”

he added, promising wide-ranging reforms to make Europe’s largest economy more competitive.

After abandoning campaign promises of fiscal consolidation to secure hundreds of billions of euros of debt-financed funding for defense, infrastructure and climate projects, Merz needs to walk a careful line before finalizing a coalition deal.

To show he’s ready to act tough, he’s even floated the idea of walking away from politics if the talks fail.

“If we don’t succeed, my career will be over anyway,”

the 69-year-old said at an event in Frankfurt after gaining approval for the spending plan.

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