Germany’s Merz rips into his rivals — but might have to work with them soon

BERLIN — Friedrich Merz took another step toward becoming German chancellor on Monday — while launching some scathing attacks on the very people with whom he will likely have to govern.

As the conservative leader lined up with most of Germany’s lawmakers in a vote of no confidence in the country’s beleaguered current chancellor, Olaf Scholz, Merz accused the heads of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) and the Greens of having humiliated the country and caused its economic decline. 

The heated and largely inward-looking parliamentary debate preceding the vote — the SPD and the Greens are in government now and could be future coalition partners for Merz as well — suggested the next coalition may be as contentious and ideologically incompatible as the one that just fell.

“You’re leaving the country with one of the biggest economic crises in its post-war history,” Merz told Scholz, accusing the SPD leader of “embarrassing Germany” in dealings with its European counterparts. 

The vote against Scholz paves the way for an early election set for Feb. 23, an outcome that was virtually assured following the collapse of Germany’s fractious three-party coalition last month. Monday’s bitter debate suggests that what comes next may not be pretty either, at a time when Europe is dealing with multiple fragmented, weak governments.

Merz’s only choices

Germany’s center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), led by Merz, and its conservative sister party in Bavaria — the Christian Social Union (CSU) — are currently leading polls by a wide margin. But they remain far from an absolute majority, so will need to govern in coalition with at least one other party.

But you wouldn’t have guessed it from the tenor of Monday’s debate. “We are replacing this standstill and the redistributive economic policies of the Social Democrats and Greens with an economic policy of motivation and competitiveness,” Merz said.

He argued for cuts to social spending and more private investment in the economy, and  castigated Economy Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens as “the face of Germany’s economic crisis.”

Merz’s natural coalition partner, the fiscally conservative Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by former Finance Minister Christian Lindner, is polling at just five percent, not nearly enough for an absolute majority and barely above the threshold needed to gain seats in parliament.

That doesn’t leave Merz with many palatable choices for coalition allies. 

Germany’s parliament is increasingly fractured due the rise of radical parties on both sides of the spectrum. Merz has said he refuses to govern with the radical-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is now polling in second place at 19 percent. Meanwhile, the newly formed populist-left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) is in fifth place with 7 percent.

“Preoccupied with ourselves“

Much of the political conversation so far has centered on Germany’s domestic issues, rather than on how the country will deal with the massive global challenges it now confronts, from Donald Trump’s return to the White House — and the possibility that he’ll stop U.S. military support for Ukraine — to the breakdown of the free trade that has long underpinned Germany’s export-oriented economic model.

Scholz, for example, barely mentioned Ukraine in his comments during Monday’s parliamentary debate. When he did mention the war it was mainly to reinforce the message that he is the prudent choice to prevent an escalation in the fighting given his refusal to provide Ukraine with German-made Taurus cruise missiles.

“We will not do anything that puts our own security at risk and that is why we are not supplying any cruise missiles, a far-reaching weapon that can have a deep impact on Russia,” Scholz said. “And we are certainly not sending any German soldiers to fight in this war, not with me as chancellor.”

Merz, on the other hand, criticized Scholz for failing to keep his promise, following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, to fundamentally rebuild Germany’s depleted armed forces after decades of disarmament. 

But he offered few details on how he would pay for such a military expansion, other than to say it would be a budgetary priority.

Habeck was one of the few to warn that Germany’s pre-election debate has been too insular, noting “we are largely preoccupied with ourselves” while the world around us “is not in a good state of affairs.”

He also warned the next government may not bring the unity and effectiveness many desire.

“There are no guarantees that we will get back to a quick and smooth government after the new election,” he said.

Traveling in another galaxy

Scholz began the debate by defending his record as chancellor and vowing to maintain social spending, securing pensions and jobs while pursuing a “politics of respect” for those with lower incomes. He blamed his political opponents for Germany’s stagnating economy.

“We need more growth,” he said. “But then we must ask ourselves how much stronger our economy could have grown if our infrastructure were up to scratch, if we had the electricity grids, wind turbines and solar parks that we need for a clean, secure and affordable energy supply — electricity grids, wind turbines and solar parks that some of the parties represented here have been fighting against for years.”

Merz shot back, asking Scholz what he had been doing while in government as an SPD politician for 22 of the last 26 years.

“Why didn’t you actually do all the things you mentioned here?” Merz asked. “Were you traveling in another galaxy? Have you traveled to another planet?”

But Merz seemed to save much of his vitriol for Habeck, the chancellor candidate for the Greens and economy minister inside Scholz’s coalition, lambasting his focus on clean-energy initiatives.

“Mr. Habeck, you are the federal minister of economics in the fourth-largest economy in the world,” Merz said. “People want to know more than how they can replace their refrigerators and how they can get a heat pump into their cellar.”

Merz also criticized Green proposals to raise taxes on the wealthy.

“I can only say to you, have a good journey with your proposals and then look for a coalition partner who will go along with them,” he said. “It’s not us, Mr. Habeck, to put it bluntly. No way will you be able to do this economic policy with us, to make it very clear right from the start.”

Nette Nöstlinger contributed to this article from Brussels.