Friedrich Merz, the frontrunner in the race for Germany’s next chancellorship, is positioning his campaign as a decisive departure from Angela Merkel’s legacy, effectively running against his conservative predecessor. His central argument is that her political legacy now hampers Germany’s efforts to combat the far-right.
At a pre-election rally in Flensburg, for example, Merz sharpened this contrast, focusing primarily on migration. He noted that, over the past four years, Germany had taken in more than three million migrants from “third countries,” a surge that has strained the state with pressing issues such as healthcare, education, and housing.
“We can try as much as we want, but we can’t do it,” Merz declared, making a pointed rebuttal to Merkel’s iconic 2015 remark, “We can do this,” as reported by Die Welt. That statement had symbolized Germany’s “culture of hospitality,” a pledge to embrace several hundred thousand asylum seekers, but now stands in stark contrast to the challenges Merz argues the country faces.
Merz’s decision to distance himself so sharply from Merkel is entirely understandable. With elections scheduled for February 23, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) is fighting to prevent conservatives from defecting to the far-right “Alternative for Germany” (AfD). The AfD, which recently surged to second place with 21% of the vote, still trails Merz’s CDU by a significant margin, with the latter leading at 30%.
Throughout the campaign, the AfD has consistently framed the narrative for voters: Merz and Merkel are one and the same. At a party congress earlier this month, chancellor candidate Alice Weidel devoted much of her speech to reinforcing this view, portraying the CDU as a party that, under Merkel’s leadership, allowed migration and crime to spiral out of control in Germany, as noted by Politico.
For years, Merz and Merkel were fierce rivals, locked in disagreement over policy and the party’s direction. Their differences sparked internal strife, culminating in Merz’s defeat and a nearly decade-long absence from German politics.
Now, despite stepping away from the frontlines of the campaign, Merkel remains hopeful that the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and the Christian Social Union (CSU) can unite to become Germany’s strongest political force and that Merz will secure the mandate to lead as chancellor. In a recent speech in Düsseldorf, she underscored the importance of a change in government, stressing that such a shift is crucial for Germany’s future, as reported by the German TV channel WDR.
