An amateurish government reshuffle has gone badly wrong for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. With the far-right AfD likely surging in regional elections, the end of his chancellorship may come more quickly than expected.
One year into an unprecedented, debt-financed rearmament program to catch up after decades of neglect, some warn that Berlin’s military build-up poses a new German question. That’s not the case.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz’ center-right Christian Democrats have had a mixed start to this year’s five federal state elections. But these outcomes are less worrying for the chancellor than the state of his coalition partner, the Social Democrats.
Both the foreign and the domestic German secret intelligence agencies are changing.
Amid tumultuous world events, Germany has become fearful of the future. Chancellor Friedrich Merz is right to try and address this.
The Christian Democrats and Social Democrats of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’ coalition government have made an effort to get along better. So far, however, they have failed to come up with the new approaches in security and economic policy that the country needs.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has started an untimely, and ill-informed, debate about “German boots on the ground in Ukraine.” A more strategic and coherent foreign policy is still a long way off.
The German chancellor appeared to have no qualms about Donald Trump entering the war against Iran at Israel’s side in order to destroy the Iranian nuclear program. It remains unclear what follows from that.
Germany’s incoming chancellor needed two tries to get the necessary majority in parliament. This has overshadowed the start of Friedrich Merz’ new government, whose foreign policy setup actually looks promising.
The incoming government of Friedrich Merz needed the Greens to get an unprecedented financial package through parliament. The Greens delivered, in their own way.
The result of Germany’s election was largely as expected: CDU leader Friedrich Merz should be able to build a two-way coalition government with the big losers of the night, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’ Social Democrats (SPD). But much else is less clear.
The coalition-building after the election on February 23 is likely to become a moment of truth.
