Friedrich Merz, Germany’s New Leader, Leaps Into a World of Crises

20 years in the past, earlier than Friedrich Merz got here again from the personal sector to win the German chancellorship, he accepted an invite to a gathering of the French Overseas Legion in Corsica. On the final second, the organizers requested him to reach on the parade floor not by highway or rail, however by parachute.

Mr. Merz, then a company lawyer, had by no means jumped out of a airplane. However a fellow attendee recalled lately that Mr. Merz didn’t hesitate. He made the soar — efficiently, however with a little bit of a tough touchdown.

Now 69 and a politician, Mr. Merz is trying a way more precarious leap with an identical threat of stumbling.

On Tuesday, Mr. Merz, who has no government expertise in authorities, will grow to be Germany’s tenth chancellor. He’ll take workplace on the most difficult time for the nation for the reason that reunification of East and West Germany 35 years in the past.

The brand new chancellor and his coalition authorities, led by his center-right Christian Democrats, will land in a sequence of nationwide crises, together with a stagnant economy and a frayed relationship with america.

An ascendant nationalist celebration, the anti-immigrant Various for Germany, or AfD, which German home intelligence simply classified as extremist, has surpassed Mr. Merz and his mainstream political counterparts in some polls.

Within the months since his celebration received elections in February, Mr. Merz has been aggressive about addressing these challenges.

He has criticized President Trump and questioned the steadiness of American democracy, and he has huddled with international counterparts in an effort to steer a newly muscular Europe. He shortly broke a key marketing campaign promise on fiscal restraint, slicing a cope with center-left rivals to chill out Germany’s hallowed limits on authorities borrowing with the intention to spend “no matter it takes” on nationwide protection.

An regardless of joining the AfD in an effort to move new immigration restrictions shortly earlier than the election, he has vowed to shun them in Parliament as soon as extra. He has additionally reversed a pledge to show away asylum seekers.

Mr. Merz’s supporters say the strikes are the hallmark of an agile politician with the potential to ship on the large points worrying the German public: progress, protection, immigration.

“I feel he’s extraordinarily properly ready and really deep and considerate,” mentioned John P. Schmitz, a deputy White Home counsel underneath George H.W. Bush. Mr. Schmitz helped rent Mr. Merz to work within the German places of work of the Chicago legislation agency Mayer Brown and jumped out of the airplane in Corsica with Mr. Merz round 2005.

However others assume that Mr. Merz struggles to plan multiple step forward, main him to interrupt guarantees. That, they are saying, has reduce into his reputation.

His about-faces on spending and migration have alienated lots of his base conservative voters. Mr. Merz and his celebration have sagged within the polls for the reason that election, and the AfD has drawn even with them in some surveys. He’s beginning with one of many lowest approval scores of any German chief within the trendy period.

“There’s this previous saying: ‘No matter you do, act correctly and think about the top,’” mentioned Ruprecht Polenz, a former secretary normal of Mr. Merz’s celebration. “This considering,” he added, “I really feel shouldn’t be his most important power.”

Mr. Schmitz dismisses such criticism, saying that Mr. Merz’s potential to be versatile is an indication of his management.

Within the capital, Mr. Merz is understood for his allure and talent to heat to new concepts. Pals typically complain that he’s too closely influenced by the final particular person to talk with him earlier than he makes a giant determination — however that, as soon as he makes that call, he hates to be challenged on it. That has typically brought on critics to accuse him of stubbornness.

In 2020, the 6-foot-6-inch Mr. Merz gave an interview through which he was requested concerning the notion he was boastful. “My peak alone is, after all, a possible goal for such prejudices,” he mentioned. “Bodily talking, I look down on many individuals, so it’s solely a small step to ‘trying down on them.’”

A former company lawyer with important wealth, Mr. Merz has promised a extra conservative course in each the nation and the celebration he inherited from Angela Merkel, who left the chancellery three and a half years in the past.

That partly displays his background within the Sauerland area of the rich west of Germany, a area that defines his politics and persona. Throughout his marketing campaign, Mr. Merz ran on the slogan “Extra Sauerland for Germany,” evoking the area’s picture as a heartland of the nation.

Each two years he attends a ritual relationship from Medieval occasions within the picturesque city of Brilon, the place he was born and raised, through which native males stroll alongside the city’s borders earlier than gathering for a celebration within the fields.

“That is what distinguishes him: He has all the time remained intently linked to his homeland and is aware of the place he comes from,” mentioned Niklas Frigger, the deputy mayor of Brilon, who’s from Mr. Merz’s celebration.

Mr. Merz additionally involves the city each a number of weeks, often on a Sunday, to drink espresso along with his mother and father, who, at 97 and 101, lately moved right into a senior house, residents say. His spouse, Charlotte Merz, is the chief decide of an area court docket within the Sauerland city of Arnsberg, the place they stay, and so they have three grown youngsters.

The brand new chancellor, who has talked about being wild as a youth earlier than turning issues round and going to school, began his political profession in 1989 within the then-fledgling European Parliament. He quickly moved to Berlin, the place he shortly climbed the ranks of the Christian Democrats, seen for his management and talking qualities.

Within the early 2000s, after dropping an influence wrestle to Ms. Merkel, Mr. Merz turned away from politics and began a profession in company legislation, advising purchasers who needed to determine their companies in Germany. Mr. Merz served on a number of boards, together with that of the American funding agency BlackRock, earlier than returning to politics after Ms. Merkel introduced her retirement.

Throughout his election marketing campaign, Mr. Merz tried tapping right into a craving for a time when Germany’s financial system was booming, infrastructure was new and forms labored.

However challenges mounted for him, taking on a lot of his consideration.

Regardless of ending first within the February election, Mr. Merz’s choices have been restricted as a result of the celebration had carried out poorly. He had just one believable coalition companion, the Social Democrats, who had led the extraordinarily unpopular earlier authorities and registered a report low for his or her celebration in February.

To safe their votes for army spending and extra, Mr. Merz handed an unusually massive variety of cupboard positions to his junior companion. He softened his plans on immigration, together with his promise to reject asylum seekers on the border.

Mr. Merz has expressed hopes of forging a optimistic relationship with Mr. Trump, however allies say he has grow to be more and more disenchanted by a sequence of actions by the U.S. administration. These included vows to drag again American troops in Europe and a speech by Vice President JD Vance in Munich through which he attacked Europeans on “free speech” and warned them to cease sidelining events just like the AfD.

Mr. Merz was additionally shocked by the dressing-down that Mr. Trump and Mr. Vance gave Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president and a fellow ally, within the Oval Workplace. “For my part, this was not a spontaneous response to Zelensky’s statements, however fairly an intentional escalation of tensions through the assembly within the Oval Workplace,” Mr. Merz mentioned on the time.

Mr. Merz has more and more pushed again in opposition to the Trump administration, warning Germans they need to take duty for their very own safety. “Do you significantly imagine that an American authorities will comply with proceed NATO as earlier than?” he requested lawmakers in March.

Even lots of those that have criticized Mr. Merz’s management model have authorised of his stance towards america.

“I imagine that he actually understands how the worldwide state of affairs has modified and what’s altering within the U.S.,” mentioned Mr. Polenz, the previous secretary normal of Mr. Merz’s celebration. “He’s a staunch supporter of trans-Atlantic relations and will definitely attempt to keep and stabilize all relations between Germany, Europe and the U.S. as finest he can. However he’s underneath no illusions concerning the issue of the duty forward.”

Tatiana Firsova contributed reporting from Berlin.