Friedrich Merz Set To Become Germany's Chancellor, Ending Political Stalemate

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Lawmakers are widely expected to back Friedrich Merz as chancellor in a vote in the lower house of parliament.

Berlin:

Conservative Friedrich Merz is set to be sworn in on Tuesday as Germany's new chancellor at a critical juncture as the economy battles its longest post-war downturn, relations with top security ally the United States fray and the far-right surges.

Lawmakers are widely expected to back Merz as chancellor in a vote in the lower house of parliament after his CDU/CSU conservatives, who won February's federal election, secured a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democrats.

The pressure is on for Merz to show leadership after the implosion last November of outgoing SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition left a political vacuum at the heart of Europe, even as it faced a myriad of crises.

"People have been asking Germany to lead for a long time, and there is no more space to not heed that call," said Sudha David-Wilp of the German Marshall Fund of the United States.

"Everything that had been undergirding post-war Germany in the past eight decades is no longer the case, whether it be open markets and free trade, whether it be the U.S. security presence in Europe."

A global trade war sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping import tariffs is threatening a third year of downturn in Europe's largest economy, which has already had to grapple with the end of cheap Russian gas since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and growing rivalry from China.

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