Merz’s Botched Flirtation With Far Right Shakes German Election
- The CDU/CSU chancellor candidate is leading Germany’s polls
- His controversial migration reform bill failed in parliament
Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Jan. 31.
Photographer: Krisztian Bocsi/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
The sweat was dripping off Friedrich Merz after the frontrunner to become Germany’s next chancellor saw his bid to outflank an ascendant far right spectacularly backfire in the Bundestag.
Shoulders sunken, he addressed reporters after a dozen colleagues from his own CDU alliance turned on him less than a month before a snap election he thought he had in the bag. Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats sat back quietly, taking it in. The anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany’s chancellor candidate, Alice Weidel, reveled in his humiliation.