Merz to be sworn when Germany ends for six months of political stalemate

The German parliament will choose Friedrich Merz conservatively as its new Chancellor.

The 69-year-old promises to breathe new life into the flag economy of the country and to increase his voice on the world stage.

It puts an end to the recent political Limbo of Germany after the last government collapsed.

But Merz comes in at a time of enormous uncertainty abroad and an increasing extreme right -wing home.

“It is our historic duty to make this government a success,” said the CDU leader on Monday, officially signing the coalition agreement.

The supporters of Merz claim that what they regard as a good government can help to tackle the growing dissatisfaction of voters.

“I think we really have to prove that we solve the problems, not in a radical way, only in a very responsible, visible, detailed way,” says Mark Helfrich, a CDU member of the Bundestag.

But the CDU, CSU and SPD coalition have a narrow majority with 328 seats – only a dozen more than the required minimum.

In the federal elections of February, the CDU/CSU bumped its support with only four points, while the coalition partner, the SPD, crashed to his worst post -war result.

Merz has promised to sharpen the immigration rules, to invest in the ailing infrastructure of the country and to rebuild the ties with important European partners.

He already sent a law to release the defense and safety of the strict debt rules of Germany – knowing that in the new parliament he could not find the necessary majority to do this.

“A remarkable decision,” says Claudia Major, a senior vice-president at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.

But because support for the ruling parties is relatively low, “Merz will have to convince the wider public of the need to spend more on defense”.

Snipping on Merz’s Hakken In this parliament will be the extreme right -wing alternative Für Deutschland (AfD), now the most important opposition power in Bundestag.

The AfD wants to close the boundaries of Germany, deport migrants en masse, terminate weapon supplies to Ukraine and re -open ties with Putin’s Russia.

Last week the AfD was officially classified as an extremist organization by domestic intelligence (BFV), with a debate about whether the party should be banned.

The AfD has now said that he suits the BFV and accuses an “abuse” of power.

And the designation was publicly denounced by senior figures in the US government of Donald Trump – including vice -president JD Vance.

Managing relationships with the White House of Trump will be a different balancing act for Merz, a dedicated Atlanticist who pulled eyebrows on the election evening when he stated that Europe should “achieve the US independence”.

Nevertheless, Merz’s government will “invest a lot to maintain the transatlantic relationship,” says Claudia Major of the GMF.

There is speculation that he can even “go for golf”-a reference to the search for Golf-Mad Trump by playing some holes on the fairway.

But the first journeys from Merz abroad will be to Paris and Warsaw, relationships he claims to have suffered under Olaf Scholz.

It is “high time” to improve German-Polish relations, says Agnieszka Pomaska, a member of the Polish SEJM and member of the Civic Platform Party by Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

“We have to invest together in the army, in the defense,” says Pomaska, who says that the government of Scholz was “politically weak” and “it is never easy to cooperate with a government that is just weak.”

“We did not have this feeling that was very present in previous years that Germany is one of the leaders in the European Union.”