BERLIN: Hours after Friedrich Merz’s conservatives won Germany’s national election, he sent the outgoing Social Democrat government a memorandum dictating how to cooperate during the transition period before he took power.
Caretaker Chancellor Olaf Scholz must take no significant foreign or domestic policy decision without first consulting Merz’s team, it ordered, the 69-year-old told reporters.
“Conservatives want to put Scholz on a leash!” read the headline of Germany’s best-selling Bild newspaper.
While cooperation between outgoing and incoming governments is the norm in consensus-driven Germany, such instructions are not.
That Merz, who has no previous government experience, will be the next chancellor is not yet a done deal.
First, his conservatives who scored 28.5% in Sunday’s election need to find a coalition partner to reach a majority in parliament.
Their only realistic option currently, if they continue to exclude the far-right Alternative for Germany that finished second with 20.8%, are the SPD.
Critics - even some within his own party - worry that Merz’s abrasive style could complicate the formation of a viable coalition and leave a vacuum at the heart of one of Europe’s major powers at a critical juncture.
Supporters say Merz wields the kind of assertive leadership Germany needs as it battles an ailing economy and a potential security crisis given the risk of US disengagement under the new Trump administration.
Scholz, whose unpopular coalition collapsed in November, was accused by the opposition and European allies of insufficient leadership and stilted communication.
Turning point
Merz has not waited to take power before meeting with European leaders such as French President Emmanuel Macron, with whom he dined on Wednesday night.
“He’s trying to project the fact this is a turning point - in migration, the economy, foreign and security policy,” said Oliver Lembcke, political scientist at the University of Bochum.
But critics say Merz’s style seems imperious and inspired by the disruptive spirit reigning in the United States - and won’t go down well in a country where the executive’s power is much more restrained and coalitions are needed to govern.
There was also a backlash to the 31-page filing in parliament that Merz submitted this week asking the outgoing government 551 questions on whether civil society groups that had received government funding were politically neutral.
This “reveals the authoritarian traits of the Union, which have almost been forgotten for a while”, senior Greens lawmaker Irene Mihalic, referring to Merz’s Christian Democratic Union party.
German vote winner Merz seeks to build govt as Europe waits
Think-tank Eurointelligence called it a “DOGE moment in German politics”, comparing it to billionaire Elon Musk’s moves to slash public spending in Washington.
Senior SPD politicians are riled, and have warned Merz not to take their support for granted. “Merz has deepened the rifts with the SPD in recent weeks,” said SPD co-chief Lars Klingbeil.
“The expectation is already clear that Merz will clearly change his course and also his tone.”
Doubts about Merz’s suitability to be chancellor are growing, according to several senior SPD sources.
Even within Merz’s own conservatives, some are worried. “At the moment, it is all about our tone towards the SPD,” said one high-ranking conservative on condition of anonymity.
Backtracking
Already during the campaign, Merz had to backtrack on some of his brashest statements, prompting accusations from his rivals of being erratic.
In January, he presented a five-point plan for cracking down on migration that he said his future coalition partner would have to accept.
“I won’t go any other way and anyone who wants to go with me has to follow these five points,” he said.
“Compromises are no longer possible on these issues.” Lawmakers from the Greens and SPD pointed out that he would not, as chancellor, be able to simply push through a plan they deemed in large part illegal.
Already, he has backed down on elements of the plan. Instead of detaining the hundreds of thousands of migrants legally required to leave the country, he now says authorities should detain tens of thousands of them, for example.
He has backtracked too on foreign policy.
While in October he said Germany should give the Kremlin 24 hours to end its attacks on civilian infrastructure on Ukraine or it would deliver long-range Taurus missiles to the country, he insisted two months later there was never an ultimatum.
“Merz changes his opinion in a central area of foreign policy like others change their shirts,” the SPD’s foreign policy spokesman Nils Schmid said.
The outgoing SPD-led government gave Merz’s memorandum short shrift.
The government would consult with Germany’s likely new political leadership, a spokesperson said.
But - unlike during the previous transition, when Chancellor Angela Merkel took Scholz to meet then US President Joe Biden - it would meet foreign leaders without Merz.
“Merz is now pushing far too aggressively for the fact that he wants to be in charge immediately,” said a senior SPD politician.
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