Germany’s
Merz weakened already — as he battles party dissatisfaction
The incoming
chancellor vowed to be a strong leader for Europe, but coalition talks may
leave him focused on damage control at home.
April 8,
2025 4:01 am CET
By James
Angelos
BERLIN —
Friedrich Merz has yet to begin his chancellorship, but he’s already in big
political trouble.
The incoming
leader is facing slumping approval ratings and a barrage of criticism from
parts of his conservative base who believe he is yielding to the will of the
center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) during coalition talks. Merz’s
critics say he is failing to make good on pre-election vows to move his
Christian Democratic Union (CDU) sharply to the right in key policy areas.
The dissent
within the ranks has spilled out into the open in recent days after members of
the conservative bloc’s youth organization in the city of Cologne wrote a
letter to Merz venting their dismay.
“Mr. Merz,
we believed in your political leadership. We trusted you. And we have fought
for you,” the letter read. “But we are now asking the question: for what? For a
CDU that submits to the left-wing mainstream?”
After years
of weak, divided government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz, many European leaders
had hoped Merz would provide stronger German leadership within the European
Union. Merz too has vowed to provide that leadership in light of the challenges
posed by U.S. President Donald Trump, vowing after his victory in the Feb. 23
snap election “to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible so that, step by
step, we can really achieve independence from the USA.”
But Merz’s
recent political difficulties have left him injured, a weakened leader who may
have to spend more time attempting to repair his damaged image at home. Already
Germany’s conservative bloc is dropping in the polls while the far-right
Alternative for Germany (AfD) — set to become Germany’s biggest opposition
party when the new Bundestag convenes — is benefiting from the incoming
chancellor’s new vulnerability.
Germany’s
latest benchmark Deutschlandtrend poll shows support for Merz’s conservative
bloc dropping three percentage points to 26 percent and the AfD gaining by the
same margin to reach 24 percent support, its strongest-ever result. Perhaps
even more concerning for Merz, only 25 percent of Germans approve of his
performance, down 10 percentage points from February, when the conservatives
won the national election.
Merz’s
recent political problems began when he reached a historic agreement with the
SPD and the Greens to unleash as much as €1 trillion in new spending for
defense and infrastructure over the next decade, including €100 billion for
Germany’s green transition. While Germany’s dramatic move to reverse more than
15 years of self-imposed austerity drew approval abroad, many domestic
conservatives quietly smarted, believing that Merz — who had preached a
conservative gospel of fiscal discipline ahead of the election — had given his
center-left opponents the debt-fueled spending they’d long advocated.
The move
also opened him up to fierce attacks from the AfD, whose leaders accused Merz
of betraying his own voters. “What do you actually stand for, Mr. Merz?” one of
the AfD’s leaders, Tino Chrupalla, asked in parliament. “By now, you have the
mRNA of the SPD implanted in you.”
Germany
‘will suffer massive damage’
Much of the
criticism of Merz is coming from his conservative bloc’s youth organization,
the Young Union.
Johannes
Winkel, the chair of the organization who also also sits on the CDU board,
threatened to vote against a coalition agreement with the SPD that doesn’t
deliver on core conservative policies. He demanded a crackdown on migration and
the restoration of economic competitiveness by cutting regulation and
bureaucracy.
“If we enter
into a coalition without the overdue and promised policy change, the country
will suffer massive damage,” he said in an interview with the Süddeutsche
Zeitung daily.
The youth
organization in Cologne demanded that Merz follow through on his pre-election
pledges to reject asylum seekers at the border, reject tax increases, and
institute “a massive reduction” in bureaucracy, all policies the SPD has
resisted to varying degrees.
“If this
course is not corrected immediately, you will not only jeopardize the CDU’s
profile — you will destroy the trust of the people and the commitment of its
members,” the conservative youth wrote.
The problem
for Merz, however, is that he doesn’t have much leverage to force the SPD to
bend to the will of conservatives. His massive spending plan has already given
the SPD much of what it wanted, and having ruled out an alliance with the AfD,
he has no other viable coalition partner.
In recent
days Merz has been trying to placate his dissatisfied base, addressing their
core concerns as Trump’s tariffs wreak havoc in Europe and beyond.
“The
situation on the international equity and bond markets is dramatic and
threatens to get worse,” Merz told Reuters. “It’s more important than ever for
Germany to restore its competitiveness. That must be at the heart of coalition
talks.”
But as
Europe faces its most challenging moment since the Cold War, it’s far from
clear Merz will emerge from those talks with the political capital he needs to
rise to the occasion.
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