Two decades ago, before Friedrich Merz returned from the private sector to win the German cancellation, accepted an invitation to a gathering of the French foreign legion in Corsica. At the last moment, the organizers asked him to arrive on the ground of the parade not on the road or railway, but for parachute.
Mr. Merz, then a corporate lawyer, had never jumped out of a plane. But a participating colleague recently remembered that Mr. Merz did not hesitate. He made the jump – successfully, but with a little approximate landing.
Now 69 and a politician, Merz is trying a much more precarious leap with a similar risk of stumbling.
Tuesday, Merz, who has no executive experience in the government, will become the tenth German chancellor. It will enter the most demanding moment for the nation from the reunification of Eastern and Western Germany 35 years ago.
The new chancellor and his coalition government, led by his center -right Christian democrats, will land in a series of national crises, including a stagnant economy and a repealed relationship with the United States.
An ascending nationalist party, the anti-immigrated alternative for Germany, or Afd, that the German domestic intelligence just classified as an extremist, has passed Mr. Merz and its traditional political counterparts in some polls.
In the months since his party won the elections in February, Merz was aggressive in facing those challenges.
He criticized President Trump and questioned the stability of American democracy, and curled up with foreign counterparts in an attempt to lead a barely muscular Europe. He quickly broke a key campaign promise on tax moderation, cutting an agreement with the center-left rivals to relax the sanctified limits of Germany to the government loans to spend “anything for national defense.
And although he joined the FD in an attempt to approve new restrictions on immigration just before the elections, he promised to avoid them once again in Parliament. He also reversed the commitment to remove asylum seekers.
The supporters of Mr. Merz say that the moves are the distinctive sign of an agile politician with the potential to face the great issues that worry the German public: growth, defense, immigration.
“I think it's extremely well prepared, very deep and thoughtful,” said John P. Schmitz, a vice of the White House under George HW Bush. Schmitz contributed to hiring Merz to work in the German offices of the Chicago Mayer Brown law firm and jumped out of the plane in Corsica with Mr. Merz around 2005.
But others think that Mr. Merz struggles to plan more than one step forward, leading him to break his promises. This, they say, cut its popularity.
Its faces of spending and migration have alienated many of its basic conservative voters. Mr. Merz and his party trampled in the polls from the elections and the AFD also designed with them in some polls. He is starting with one of the lowest approval assessments of any German leader in the modern era.
“There is this old saying:” Whatever you do, act wisely and consider the end, “said Riprecht Polenz, former secretary general of the party of Mr. Merz.” This thought “, he added,” I feel that it is not his main strength. “
Schmitz rejects these criticisms, stating that Mr. Merz's ability to be flexible is a sign of his leadership.
In the capital, Mr. Merz is known for his charm and the ability to heat new ideas. Sometimes friends complain that he is too influenced by the last person to talk to him before making a great decision, but once he makes that decision, he hates being challenged. This has sometimes gained him to accuse him of stubbornness.
In 2020, Mr. Merz from 6 feet and 6 inches gave an interview in which he was asked about the perception that he was arrogant. “My height alone is, of course, a potential goal for such prejudices,” he said. “Physically speaking, I look at many people at the bottom, so it's just a small step to” look at them at the bottom “.”
An ex -corporate lawyer with significant wealth, Merz promised a more conservative course both in the country and in the party that inherited from Angela Merkel, who left the chancellery three and a half years ago.
This partly reflects his background in the Sauerland region in the rich west of Germany, a region that defines his policy and his person. During his campaign, Merz ran on the slogan “More Sauerland for Germany”, evoking the image of the region as the heart of the country.
Every two years he attended a ritual of meetings from the Middle Ages in the picturesque city of Brilon, where he was born and raised, in which local men walk along the borders of the city before gathering for a party in the fields.
“This is what distinguishes him: he has always remained closely linked to his homeland and knows where he comes from,” said Niklas Frygger, vice mayor of Brilon, who comes from Mr. Merz's party.
Mr. Merz also comes to the city every different weeks, usually on Sunday, to drink coffee with his parents, who, at 97 and 101, recently moved to a senior house, say the residents. His wife, Charlotte Merz, is the chief judge of a local court in the city of Arnsberg of Sauerland, where they live, and have three young children.
The new chancellor, who spoke of being wild as a young man before shooting and going to university, began his political career in 1989 in the European Parliament then. He moved to Berlin soon, where he quickly climbed the ranks of Christian Democrats, noticed for his leadership and his qualities of speaking.
At the beginning of the 2000s, after losing a power struggle for Mrs. Merkel, Merz moved away from politics and started a career in corporate law, advising customers who wanted to establish their activities in Germany. Merz has served on multiple advice, including that of the American investment company Blackrock, before returning to politics after Mrs. Merkel announced her retreat.
During his election campaign, Merz tried to exploit a period in which the German economy was shouting, the infrastructures were new and the bureaucracy worked.
But the challenges mounted for him, taking a large part of his attention.
Despite arrived first in the February elections, Mr. Merz's options were limited because the party had performed badly. He had only one partner of plausible coalition, the Social Democrats, who had led the previous previously unpopular government and had recorded a minimum record for their party in February.
To ensure their votes for military spending and more, Merz has delivered an unusual number of cabinet positions to his partner Junior. He softened his plans on immigration, including his promise to refuse asylum seekers on the border.
Merz expressed hope of forging a positive relationship with Mr. Trump, but the allies claim to have become increasingly disenchanted by a series of actions by the American administration. These included votes to collect American troops in Europe and a speech by the vice -president JD Vance in Munich in which he attacked Europeans in the “freedom of speech” and felt them to stop exchanging parts like the Afd.
Merz was also amazed by the fit that Mr. Trump and Vance gave Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president and an allied companion, in the oval office in Volodymyr. “In my opinion, this was not a spontaneous reaction to Zelensky's statements, but rather an intentional escalation of tensions during the meeting in the oval office,” said Merz at that moment.
Merz has increasingly rejected the Trump administration, warning the Germans who must take responsibility for their safety. “Do you seriously believe that an American government will agree to continue NATO as before?” He asked the legislators in March.
Even many of those who criticized Mr. Merz's leadership style have approved his position towards the United States.
“I think it really understands how the global situation has changed and what is changing in the United States,” said Polenz, former secretary general of the party of Mr. Merz. “He is a convinced supporter of transatlantic relationships and will certainly try to maintain and stabilize all the relationships between Germany, Europe and the United States in the best best. But he has no illusions on the difficulty of the task in coming.”
Tatiana First Relationships contributed by Berlin.