Who is Friedrich Merz and what’s in his in-tray?
by Kate Connolly in Berlin from World news | The Guardian on (#6VFGZ)
Former banker almost certain to be Germany's next chancellor faces testing domestic political and economic landscape - and then there's Donald Trump
Friedrich Merz, a former banker who has never been a government minister, appears almost certain to be the next chancellor of Germany after his conservative CDU/CSU alliance won the most votes in Sunday's crucial federal election.
During the campaign his decision to win a vote in parliament by relying on far-right support proved a historic and highly controversial turning point, even if he has since insisted he would never break Germany's firewall" (brandmauer") by going into coalition government with the anti-immigration Alternative fur Deutschland.
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