Merz is the promise that has become doubtful

Friedrich Merz faces fierce internal criticism and sees his conservative base threatens to break after agreements with the SPD and unfulfilled promises

Friedrich Merz has not yet started his mandate as a chancellor, but is already feeling the pressure. The new leader faces falling approval rates and a flood of criticism of sectors of his conservative base, who believe he is giving in to the will of the center-left social democratic party (SPD) during coalition negotiations. Merz critics say he is not fulfilling the pre-election promises to move his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) to the right in important political areas.

The dissent within the ranks has surfaced in the last days after members of the youth organization of the conservative bloc in the city of Colony wrote a letter to Merz expressing their dismay.

“Mr. Merz, we believed in his political leadership. We trusted the Lord. And we fought for him,” the letter said. “But now we ask ourselves, why? By a CDU that submits to the dominant current of the left?”

After years of a weak and divided government under the command of Chancellor Olaf Scholz, many European leaders expected Merz to provide stronger German leadership within the European Union. Merz has also promised to exercise this leadership in the face of the challenges imposed by US President Donald Trump, promising, after his win in early February 23, “strengthen Europe as soon as possible so that step by step we can actually achieve US independence.”

But Merz’s recent political difficulties have made him injured, a weakened leader who may have to devote more time to the recovery of his damaged image at home. The German conservative bloc is already falling in the polls, while the Alternative Far Party for Germany (AFD) – about to become Germany’s largest opposition party when the new Bundestag gather – benefits from the new vulnerability of the new chancellor.

The latest German reference research, DeutschlandTrend, shows that support for the conservative Merz block fell three percentage points to 26%, and AFD has advanced by the same margin, reaching 24% support, its strongest result until then. Perhaps even more worrying for Merz is the fact that only 25% of Germans approve their performance, a drop of 10 percentage points compared to February, when conservatives won the national elections.

Merz’s recent political problems began when he came to a historic agreement with the SPD and the green to release up to € 1 trillion in new defense and infrastructure expenses in the next decade, including € 100 billion for Germany’s green transition. Although the drastic German initiative to reverse more than 15 years of self-imposed austerity has been approved abroad, many domestic conservatives resonated discreetly, believing that Merz-who had preached a conservative fiscal discipline gospel before the elections-had given his center-left opponents the debt-fed spending they had long defended.

The measure also exposed it to AFD fierce attacks, whose leaders accused Merz of betraying their own voters. “What do you really defend, Mr. Merz?” Asked one of AFD leaders, Tino Chrupalla, in Parliament. “By now, you already have the SPD MRNA implanted in you.”

Germany ‘will suffer massive damage’

Many of the criticism of Merz come from the youth organization of its conservative bloc, the Young Union.

Johannes Winkel, president of the organization and member of the CDU council, threatened to vote against a coalition agreement with the SPD that does not fulfill the main conservative policies. He required a repression of migration and the restoration of economic competitiveness by cutting regulations and bureaucracy.

“If we go into a coalition without the promised and expected political change, the country will suffer huge damage,” he said in an interview with the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung.

The Youth Organization in Colony has required Merz to fulfill its pre-election promises to reject asylum applicants on the border, reject tax increases and institute “a massive reduction” in bureaucracy, all policies to which SPD has resisted in varying degrees.

“If this course is not corrected immediately, you will not only endanger the CDU profile – but will destroy the confidence of the people and the commitment of its members,” wrote the conservative young man.

The problem for Merz, however, is that he does not have much influence to force the SPD to bend at the will of conservatives. His huge spending plan has already given the SPD a lot of what he wanted and, having ruled out an alliance with AFD, he has no other viable coalition partner.

In recent days, Merz has been trying to appease his dissatisfied base, addressing his main concerns while Trump’s rates cause damage in Europe and elsewhere.

“The situation in international action and title markets is dramatic and threatens worse,” Merz told Reuters. “It’s more important than ever that Germany restores its competitiveness. This must be at the center of coalition negotiations.”

But while Europe has faced its most challenging moment since the Cold War, it is nothing clear if Merz will leave these negotiations with the necessary political capital to be up to the circumstances.

With information from Political*