Friedrich Merz: Flags in the wind on the way to the Chancellery (opinion)

The Bundestag election campaign is still in full swing, but it is already becoming apparent who will not only squeeze back Chancellor, but also a German champion in the back: Friedrich Merz. The Union’s candidate for Chancellor has felt great confessions, promises or demands every week in the past few months, only to put them back into perspective. Sometimes he is for the Taurus delivery to Ukraine, sometimes against it. Sometimes he criticizes the nuclear phase -out, but he considers a re -entry to be “unlikely”. And then there is the thing with the fire wall for the AfD.

Merz drives a loop course in the election campaign. Led solved solely from the survey values. He tells the voters what they want to hear as long as it promises voices. For a long time he staged himself as a builder of the fire wall and vehemently excluded cooperation with the AfD. Now he deviates his statement at least as far as he is open to the votes of the AfD, the right wing party should vote for its “5-point migration plan”.

The voters should apparently perceive Merz as a pragmatist. First the (supposed) problem solutions come, after that you can talk about ideology or attitude. At first glance, the reasonable and from the perspective of the Chancellor’s candidate looks promising. But Merz also takes a massive risk: what he really stands for is watering down a little more with every role.

So you come to the assumption that his critics have been accusing him for a long time: Friedrich Merz is primarily about Friedrich Merz. He wants to become a chancellor, it costs what it wants. For this he also seems to be ready to flee or promise in sham debates that have great doubts as to whether he can keep them. For example, the plan to reject asylum seekers at the border without examining their application. That sounds hard after strictly reaching after an iron chancellor. However, some European lawyers see this a violation of laws – which also apply to a Chancellor Merz.

Politicians are not simply made with wishes – the voters know that. And they also know that announcements from Merz that he wanted to go through as a chancellor on his first day, if necessary, use his directive competence to close the borders, ultimately nothing more than omnipotence fantasies that may be possible in the USA, but not in Germany. Maybe you can even understand them as begging: “I promise you what you want, but I have to be a chancellor for God’s sake.”

The problem with this: from a certain point, pragmatism becomes backbone. Anyone who only looks at survey values ​​loses their own compass. And it may not only harm yourself, but also the credibility of your own party. In this election, Merz will probably get through with his tactics. But already for the voters you cannot say who will sit in the Chancellery. Friedrich Merz, the CDU Chancellor in tradition of Adenauer, Kiesinger and Kohl? Or the flag in the wind from the election campaign?