Germany’s “business model is gone”, warns Friedrich Merz
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. IT IS A calm and confident Friedrich Merz who greets The Economist on February 7th at a luxury golf resort in Stromberg, a little town in Germany’s Rhineland. Two weeks ago controversy exploded around the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), after he relied on the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to get a non-binding motion urging restrictions on migration through parliament.
Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest. But it does not appear to have fazed the man hoping to become Germany’s chancellor after the election on February 23rd. Getting migration and the economy right are essential, he tells us, if the AfD is to be kept out of power.
Mr Merz is tall, thin and a plainer speaker than any German chancellor since at least Gerhard Schröder. His energetic campaign performances belie his 69 years. Polls suggest that the AfD controversy has not derailed his goal of a solid victory for the CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU).
If so, he will have first dibs on the chancellery, once he finds a coalition partner. For worried observers, Europe risks being left behind as China and America race ahead in innovative industries like AI. Mr Merz insists that Germany has no choice but to change.
“The business model of this country is gone," he states bluntly. His response begins with a war on red tape in Brussels and Berlin. “We have to do serious work on this burden of bureaucracy," he says, rattling off a list of directives and regulations, including the detailed due-diligence reporting standards that German business leaders loath.
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