Elections

German Conservatives Fret Trump Could Disrupt Path to Victory

Merz’s CDU remains well ahead six weeks ahead of election
CDU worries rebuke of Trump may burnish Scholz’s image

Friedrich Merz during a news conference in Hamburg, Germany, on Jan. 11.Photographer: Maria Feck/Bloomberg

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By Michael Nienaber and Arne Delfs

January 11, 2025 at 6:33 PM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Germany’s conservatives are nervous that Donald Trump’s return to the White House could complicate their march to a resounding election victory over Chancellor Olaf Scholz.

Even with a comfortable lead in the polls, advisers for Friedrich Merz, the Christian Democratic Union leader, are looking anxiously at Trump’s Jan. 20 inauguration as a watershed event that could shift the election calculus by casting Scholz as a defender of democracy, according to a party official who spoke on condition of anonymity.