FRIEDRICH MERZ is doing it, and I’m fine with that.” This brief statement by Markus Söder, the head of Bavaria’s governing Christian Social Union (CSU), was enough to confirm what had long been clear in German political circles: that Mr Merz, leader of the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the CSU’s larger sibling, would be the parties’ joint candidate at next year’s federal election. Mr Merz will thus lead the opposition conservatives’ bid to unseat Olaf Scholz, the Social Democratic (SPD) chancellor.
I don’t know enough about German domestic politics to understand the full impact, though my memory is that Merz is considered to be more-economically-liberal than Söder.
Söder serves Bavaria first, as does his party CSU. Appointing CSU folks to federal chancellor candidacy for CDU/CSU is never smart, unless they won enough charisma and credibility federally.
Both Merz and Söder are opportunistic racists and classists, but in general they respect the rule of law aesthetically. Söder is the slightly bigger opportunistic climate denialist and doesn’t fear clientelist interventionism. Merz is found near BlackRock and company. Both get off on 60 percent debt to GDP limit.
Suburban home-, shop-, land and car owners are kind of their electorate.
The only benefit of Merz is, that he’s an old geezer who is nearing the ripe age of 70, with a bit of luck, Mother Nature will rid us of him before his term ends.
Yes, please no 16 years of CDU again 😭
