Government formation: What you should know about Friedrich Merz

For Friedrich Merz it should be the greatest triumph of his political career: if everything runs as expected today, he will lead the Union back to power after about three and a half years in the opposition as a chancellor. The 69-year-old was considered politically written off for a long time and had meanwhile decided on a career in the economy. The Sauerländer fought his way back to the political top.

After the then CDU leader Angela Merkel displaced him as an Union faction leader in 2002, Merz worked for the US investment company Blackrock, among other things, and collected economic competence. It was only in the third attempt and 20 years later that after the withdrawal of Merkel, he became CDU leader and chairman of the Union faction.

What else you should know about Merz:

Sauerländer, lawyer, more conservative

Born on November 11, 1955 in Brilon in Sauerland, Merz initially became a judge in 1985, shortly afterwards he worked as a lawyer. In 1989 he moved into the European Parliament in Strasbourg, in 1994 he became a member of the Bundestag for the Hochsauerland constituency.

Merz positioned himself early as a conservative. As a good speaker, he was quickly considered a hope of hope, and in terms of content he was a financial expert. In February 2000, at the height of the CDU party donation scandal, he was elected to the successor of Wolfgang Schäuble as the chairman of the Union Group.

Merz shaped the controversial term by the “German leading culture”. In October 2003 he presented cornerstones of a radical tax reform, which should be explained with three stages on a beer lid. “The beer lid is dead. Forget the beer lid,” says Merz today.

Merz has probably not wounded that the then CDU chairman and later long-term chancellor Angela Merkel, Angela Merkel, was displaced in 2002 from the post of the Union faction leader and opposition leader in the Bundestag. Until 2009 Merz stayed in the Bundestag, then retired from the political stage. He worked as a lawyer, went to supervisory boards of numerous companies and was head of the German branch of the US investment company Blackrock.

From the polarizer to a reconciler

In the CDU, Merz was long considered a polarizer. In his own ranks, however, he is certified that he has united the CDU again after the loss of power in 2021. The relationship with the CSU, broken up at Merkel’s time, gave him a tough course in migration policy.

However, political opponents can still put Merz on the palm with polarizing statements. This was shown in the election campaign, for example, when he allowed it in the Bundestag in the migration debate that the AfD helped a union application to the majority.

Merz comes from a family of lawyers, he is married to a judge. The couple lives in Arnsberg in the Hochsauerland. Merz has already announced that he also wants to keep his first place of residence there as a chancellor. Charlotte Merz is the director of the Arnsberg district court. The couple has three adult children, a son and two daughters, as well as seven grandchildren. Merz is considered a family man. Last summer, Merz advised in the family about whether one wanted to expect the Chancellor’s job’s burdens.

When asked by the “Bild” newspaper, whether he has already commissioned a children’s play room in the Chancellery, Merz said in mid-April: “No, and the family will stay outside, in the literal sense.” He added “the family should be affected as little as possible from this office”. Charlotte Merz said in the election campaign that she and her husband supported each other. “Ultimately, the source of strength is the home base in the Sauerland.”

In February, Charlotte Merz defended her husband, who is said to have a conservative image of women and family by critics. As a couple, they would also have organized family and married life on an equal footing, she told the “Westfalenpost”. Her husband “always supported her completely because he found it natural and right that I worked.”

Merz belongs to a two -engine propeller aircraft, he is considered a passionate pilot. He wanted to get the ticket early on – but the parents forbade the parents because of poor school grades.

“Flying has always been the dream of my youth. When you push through the cloud cover, see the blue sky and the engines are peaceful – that is a great pleasure for me,” said Merz in the summer of 2022 the “colorful”. Shortly before, he had flown to Sylt with his wife with his wife for the wedding of the then Federal Minister of Finance Christian Lindner (FDP). Which also met with criticism.

The DAAMOND DA62 from Merz’s Austrian production costs around one million euros with good equipment. The identification of the aircraft is D -IAFM – a desired license plate. It was still open whether Merz is also allowed as a chancellor as a private pilot. In the ARD show “Caren Miosga” he said in mid-April that a flight license had recently been extended for one year.