Germany’s parliament is set to elect conservative Friedrich Merz as its new Chancellor.
The 69-year old is promising to revitalize the country’s flagging economy and boost its voice on the world stage.
It brings an end to Germany’s recent political limbo after the last government collapsed.
But Merz takes office at a time of huge uncertainty abroad and a surging far-right at home.
“It’s our historical duty to make this government a success,” said the CDU leader on Monday, as he officially signed the coalition agreement.
Merz’s supporters argue that what they see as good government can help address growing voter discontent.
“I think we really need to prove that we solve the problems, not in a radical way, just in a very responsible, visible, detailed way,” says Mark Helfrich, a CDU member of the Bundestag.
But the CDU, CSU and SPD coalition have a narrow majority with 328 seats – just a dozen more than the minimum required.
In February’s federal election, the CDU/CSU nudged up its support by just four points while coalition partner, the SPD, crashed to its worst post-war result.
Merz has promised to tighten immigration rules, invest in the nation’s ailing infrastructure and rebuild ties with key European partners.
He already steered through a law to exempt defence and security from Germany’s strict debt rules – knowing that in the new parliament he wouldn’t be able to find the necessary majority to do so.
“A remarkable decision,” says Claudia Major, a senior vice-president at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin.
But because support for the governing parties is relatively low, “Merz will need to convince the broader public of the necessity to spend more on defence”.
Snapping at Merz’s heels throughout this parliament will be the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), now the main opposition force in the Bundestag.
The AfD wants to close Germany’s borders, deport migrants en masse, end weapons supplies to Ukraine and re-open ties with Putin’s Russia.
Last week, the AfD was officially classed as an extremist organisation by domestic intelligence (BfV), re-igniting a debate about whether the party should be banned.
The AfD has now said it’s suing the BfV, accusing it of an “abuse” of power.
And the designation was publicly denounced by senior figures in Donald Trump’s US administration – including vice president JD Vance.
Managing relationships with Trump’s White House will be another balancing act for Merz, a committed Atlanticist who raised eyebrows on election night when he declared Europe should “achieve independence from the USA”.
Nevertheless, Merz’s government will “invest a lot to keep the transatlantic relationship going” says the GMF’s Claudia Major.
There’s speculation he may even “go for golf” – a reference to seeking to woo golf-mad Trump by playing some holes out on the fairway.
But Merz’s first trips abroad are set to be to Paris and Warsaw, relationships he claims suffered under Olaf Scholz.
It’s “high time” to improve German-Polish relations, says Agnieszka Pomaska, a member of the Polish Sejm and member of Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party.
“We need to invest together in the army, in defence,” says Pomaska, who says that Scholz’s government was “politically weak” and “it’s never easy to cooperate with a government that is simply weak”.
“We didn’t have this feeling that was very much present during previous years that Germany is one of the leaders in the European Union.”
