CDU party leader Friedrich Merz speaks during a debate on immigration at the German parliament Bundestag in Berlin, Germany, Jan. 29, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber, File)
An election poster of CDU top candidate for chancellor Friedrich Merz is pictured as the sun rises in Bad Homburg near Frankfurt, Germany, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. (AP Photo/)
- Election posters, showing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and CDU top candidate Friedrich Merz, stand on a meadow in Nieder-Erlenbach near Frankfurt, Germany, Feb. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Michael
He has vowed to prioritize European unity and the continent’s security as it grapples with the new Trump administration and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
When a normal person is accused of being a Nazi, how do they respond? And how should they? This is a dilemma facing millions of German voters who want their government to jettison its liberal politics in the face of illegal immigration,
These include an economic malaise that has gripped the country in recent years, with its car-and-export-orientated economy looking vulnerable, as well as a thorny debate over immigration and integration that has seen the likes of the AfD rise in prominence and popularity.
One of the first acts of Chancellor-elect Friedrich Merz (Christian Democrat, CDU) after the election was to invite the right-wing extremist Israeli Prime Minister to Berlin.
Paul Hockenos is a journalist and author based in Berlin. His most recent book is “Berlin Calling: A Story of Anarchy, Music, the Wall, and the Birth of the New Berlin.”
Germany’s political system is set up to exclude extremists. Yet the country is waking up to a new political reality that has lurched to the right with the once outcast Alternative for Germany (AfD) party now firmly established in German politics.
The Christian Democratic Union and its allied Christian Social Union secured the largest share of votes in the German federal election, exit polls show.
Friedrich Merz's CDU won Germany's elections with 28.6 percent, while the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) recorded big gains.