Merz has not shirked away from public discussion across Europe about a more confident and militarily resilient Germany either, as the move inevitably caused some bemusement in Paris — in keeping with Gaullist tradition, French President Emmanuel Macron has been talking of “strategic autonomy” for years now — and was met with consternation in Warsaw. Late in the day though it may be for his country, Merz has shouldered this responsibility.
And like many embattled leaders, while the chancellor is often criticized for devoting a disproportionate amount of his time to international affairs, this charge has little merit given that every aspect of global tensions is affecting the lived experience of voters — from food shortages to gasoline prices and terrorism.
Still, by his own admission, progress on the domestic front has been slow. Asked in a revealing interview with Der Spiegel to rate his government’s performance so far on a scale of 1 to 100, Merz responded: “Below 50.”
He didn’t shy away from repeated questions about arguments within the unpopular coalition, or about the dangers facing both parties either. “This is one of the last chances for the political center,” stated Merz in an appeal to his junior partners, asking that they drop their resistance to the gamut of welfare and pension reforms he is seeking to push through. Thankfully, both parties are inching toward changes to health funding, but all sides admit even that process has been acrimonious and difficult.
However, this is unavoidable — and the transparency here is refreshing. In a dig at his predecessor, the chancellor suggested that Scholz had continually told citizens everything would be alright if they voted for him, insisting they wouldn’t have to choose between social welfare and defense.
In that sense, Merz’s strengths are the flip side of Scholz’s weaknesses: He shoots from the hip, and there is a much-needed bluntness about him. He acknowledges things are dire and doesn’t want to hide that from the German public. The bile thrown at him is in part a by-product of the rancorous social media era, but it is also because Germans are struggling to come to terms with the end of the politics of consensus.