Before returning to politics, he won a national election and became the first chancellor in modern German history not to win work in the first vote in Parliament, Friedrich Merz accepted an invitation to a meeting of the French foreign legion in Córtica.
At the last moment, the organizers asked him to reach the road of the parade not by road or rail, but by parachute. Mr. Merz, then corporate lawyer, had never jumped from a plane. But an assistant partner recently recalled that Mr. Merz did not hesitate. He made the jump, successful, but with a bit difficult landing.
It is not yet clear what are the long -term implications of Merz’s most recent landing, his commitment to become the next German chancellor.
After requiring two voting rounds in Parliament, it will become the next leader of Germany. But it will do it at a crucial moment for the economy, the security and role of the nation in Europe, and with new questions turning around.
The inability to ensure enough votes on Tuesday to become the chancellor in the first vote occurs, since it needs to ruin legislators to face crises at home and abroad, while delays an increase in the extreme right -wing alternative for the German Works Council.
Mr. Merz is a product of Sauerland in the rich west of Germany, a region that defines its policy and personality. Duration in his campaign, ran on the slogan “more Sauerland for Germany”, evoking the image of the region as a heart of the country.
Supporters call him agile politician with the potential to meet the big problems that concern the German public: growth, defense, immigration.
“I think it’s extremely well prepared, very deep and reflective,” said John P. Schmitz, an attached lawyer of the White House under George Hw Bush. Mr. Schmitz helped hire Mr. Merz to work in the German offices of the law firm of Chicago Mayer Brown and left the plane in Corsica with Mr. Merz around 2005.
But others say that Mr. Merz struggles to plan more than one step ahead, which leads him to break the promises, and leaving him vulnerable to a surprise setback like the vote on Tuesday.
Their excursions in spending and migration have alienated many of the conservative voters of their base. And Mr. Merz and his party have fallen into the surveys from the elections, allowing the DIM to be drawn even with them in some surveys. Even before his parliamentary stumble on Tuesday, he had one of the lowest approach grades of any German leader in the modern era.
“There is this old saying:” Do what you do, act wisely and consider the end, “said Ruprecht Polenz, a former secretary general of Mr. Merz’s party.” This thought, “he added,” I feel that it is not his main strength. “
Read more about Mr. Merz, his background and his policy approach in his profile.
