There’s no new government in Germany quite yet, but after Sunday’s election, it’s all but certain that Friedrich Merz of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) will be the next chancellor. He, along with the CDU and its Bavarian sister party CSU, will have to find coalition partners to govern.
One of the big talking points since the results came out is how Germany, and Europe will deal with US President Donald Trump.
After his party’s victory in the election was confirmed Sunday night, Merz said that he wanted to work on creating unity in Europe as quickly as possible, “so that, step by step, we can achieve independence from the US.”
Until recently, this would have been a highly unusual thing for any leader of the CDU to say. After all, it has always had a strong affinity for the US.
“Merz aligns himself with the legacy of historical CDU leaders such as [former chancellors] Konrad Adenauer and Helmut Kohl, both of whom played pivotal roles in strengthening transatlantic relations,” said Evelyn Gaiser, a policy advisor on transatlantic relationships and NATO with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, a German think tank that is associated with but independent of the Christian Democrats.
In 2018, Merz described himself as “a European of conviction, a transatlanticist, a German open to the world.”
For 10 years, from 2009 to 2019, he was chairman of the Atlantik-Brücke (Atlantic Bridge), a renowned German non-profit association that promotes German-US friendship and understanding.
“Merz’s party is the most transatlantic in Germany, and he is no exception,” Rachel Tausendfreund, a senior research fellow with the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), told DW. “He is […] also a firm supporter of NATO, as well as pro-European.”
Merz even served one term in the European Parliament in the early 1990s.
From 1994 until 2009, he represented the CDU in the Bundestag, Germany’s parliament. He has always been a particular fan of the US’s liberal economic policies ― in 2008 he published a book called “Mehr Kapitalismus wagen” (which translates roughly as “venturing more capitalism”).
Merz says that he has traveled to the US more than 100 times, and according to media reports, one of his idols is former US President Ronald Reagan.
