Germany: Friedrich Merz is CDU Candidate for Next Election
The politician, Angela Merkel's historic rival in the hierarchy of the Christian Democrats, has a good chance of becoming Germany's next chancellor
Friedrich Merz, president of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), will be a candidate in the next German election, which will be held in 2025. Merz, already a well-known politician among the Christian Democrats and then a high-level lawyer, is likely to be the favorite in the next round of elections and will also be supported by the Christian Social Union (CSU). He is likely to challenge Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Outgoing party leader Markus Söder nominated him as a candidate:
“The issue of candidacy has been resolved. The candidate will be Friedrich Merz, and I support him.” The role was also claimed by North Rhine-Westphalia’s Prime Minister Hendrik Wüst, who resigned and in turn supported Merz.
“The Union is the last great people’s party of the Democratic center. It has a great political responsibility,” commented Mertz. “The issue of migration remains a big problem. But I would like it not to be the main issue (…) the economic situation in Germany is unstable.”
Elections will be held on September 28, 2025, and the group formed by the CDU and the CSU seems to be the favorite, even if it will presumably have a hard time creating a government. Merz has not closed the possibility of a coalition with the Greens, while the traditional liberal allies (FPD), currently in a “traffic light coalition” in government with the Socialists and Greens, risk not reaching the 5 percent threshold. And all this without taking into account the variables represented by the extreme right-wing party Alternative for Germany (AfD), whose alliance with the CDU congress resolution ruled out, the Sarah Wagenknecht Union (BSW), which was a real revelation in the September elections in the states of Thuringia and Saxony.
