Do we like Friedrich Merz?
Our score: 5 out of 10. He has taken a clear stand against the far right and for Ukraine, but the flag snub, his 2020 remarks on gay people and the cityscape line keep him mid-table.
Friedrich Merz is Germany's chancellor and CDU leader, a conservative who has spent much of this year unpopular at home. In July his party's parliamentary leader, Jens Spahn, resigned after a surrogacy row, and Merz and CSU leader Markus Soder then proposed his chancellery chief Thorsten Frei for the job. Reports at the time pointed to complaints inside the coalition about poor coordination.
His relationship with the AfD is the story to watch. In January 2025 his five-point migration motion passed 348 to 345 with AfD votes after he said beforehand he was willing to take them. Weidel declared the firewall had fallen. In September 2026 he turned on the same party in the Bundestag, calling its remigration slogan a synonym for ethnic cleansing, and the AfD answered with a criminal complaint alleging defamatory insult.
The migration language is the other sore spot. In October 2025 he said “we still have this problem in the cityscape”, then said he had “nothing to take back”. SPD, Greens and Left politicians demanded an apology, though his own party backed him. Correctiv's six-month review also found he had leaned on contested claims, such as calling Bürgergeld a pull factor for asylum seekers when asylum seekers generally have no entitlement to it. His spokesperson rejected the suggestion that he had shared false claims.
On welfare, the Bundestag passed his coalition's Bürgergeld overhaul 321 to 268 in March 2026, with tougher sanctions. Merz welcomed it, saying those who can work should work. The Greens' Timon Dzienus called the sanctions inhumane, and reports say the projected savings were scaled back. Where you land depends on whether you see it as fairness or as pressure on people who are struggling.
The good side is real. He visited Kyiv on 4 October as a large military aid package was due to be announced, and said that if Russia is not stopped its war machine will turn against Europe. In December 2025 he wore a kippah at Yad Vashem, laid a wreath and pledged to keep the memory alive. Standing up to a far-right party that polled almost 44 per cent in Saxony-Anhalt takes some nerve.
So, would we support him? Not wholeheartedly. He has been firm against the far right and for Ukraine, but his record on LGBTQ+ symbols and his word choices on migration are the sort of thing that make this crowd wince. The record is thin on trans issues and on climate, so we aren't calling either. A middling score, with room to move either way.