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0Germany's Friedrich Merz: The risk-taker who flirted with far right
February 24, 2025, BBC
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Friedrich Merz - leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) - is predicted to become Germany's next Chancellor.
His party is projected to win around 28% of the vote. The question now is who he might form a coalition with.
Described by his supporters as an antidote to Europe's crisis of confidence, Merz, 69, is a familiar face to his party's old guard.
Politically, he has never come across as exhilarating. And yet he promises to provide Germany with stronger leadership and tackle many of his country's problems within four years.
His explosive bid last month to tighten migration rules with the support of far-right votes in parliament revealed a man willing to gamble by breaking a major taboo.
It also marked yet another clear break from the CDU's more centrist stance under his former party rival Angela Merkel.
Although Merz ultimately failed to change the law, he had launched a lightning bolt into an election campaign triggered by the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz's government late last year.
Famously sidelined by Merkel before she became chancellor, he quit parliament entirely to pursue a lucrative series of corporate jobs and was written off as yesterday's man.
