However, Merz’s critics — and in his long and turbulent political life, there have been many — say his U-turns were deliberate deceit, and that he had no intention of sticking to the old spending rules in the first place. For instance, the Greens, who opposed the “debt brake” rule that heavily restricted borrowing, have every right to feel double-crossed, as they’re no longer in government.
On the other hand, the CDU’s coalition partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), are acting as if they won the February election, even though they suffered their most ignominious result in over a century.
The coalition negotiations took less than two months, which in German terms is supersonic. During that time, in his desire to ensure harmony, Merz gave the party much of what it wanted: Seven cabinet posts is considerably more than the SPD was due, and the commitment to continued high welfare suggests structural reform will be minimal.
But much will depend on Merz’s relationship with “new-kid-on-the-block” Lars Klingbeil. The SPD co-leader is the new vice chancellor and minister of finance, and both he and Merz have taken note from their predecessors: Scholz’s government collapsed because the man in charge of the finance ministry, Christian Lindner, acted as an in-house opposition. They will seek to avoid that fate.
Meanwhile, one area where Merz will undoubtedly shine is abroad. This won’t be too hard, seeing as the charisma-free Scholz somehow managed to antagonize many of his interlocutors — even those he should have been close to, like French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. With visits to Paris, Warsaw and Brussels scheduled in quick succession, followed by one to London, Merz has pledged to restore Germany’s role as a major player on the European and world stage.
It will be instructive to see how Merz’s somewhat acerbic nature copes with the many crises Germany and the Western world will face. For example, just how candid will he be with Trump when dealing with Ukraine and Russia? He’s already said he’ll reverse the Scholz government’s approach and dispatch Taurus cruise missiles to help Ukraine, which is bound to cause friction.
