‘A friend of Israel’: Who is Friedrich Merz, Germany’s probable next chancellor?

Last Sunday, Friedrich Merz and his union of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and Christian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) parties received 28.6% of the vote in the German elections, winning first place and making Merz the most likely next chancellor of Europe’s largest economy.

Merz received swift congratulations from Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar, who praised him as “a friend of Israel,” and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who said they had a “warm conversation.”

The 69-year-old Merz is coming to power amid a critically important time, as Israel’s war in Gaza continues and the new Trump era threatens to shake U.S.-European relations.

He follows the Social Democrat Olaf Scholz, whose government has publicly supported Israel but internally, imposed limitations on arms sales.

In addition, some of Scholz’s party members openly campaigned for Kamala Harris, and he was criticized for hesitant and inconstant support for Ukraine, alienating both the Trump administration as well as European allies.

Meanwhile, Merz has long been seen as a loyal ally of Israel, as well as a stalwart “transatlanticist” who advocates strong connections with the U.S. and the American-led alliance of Western nations.

Merz was born in the small town of Brilon, in the west German state of North Rhine-Westphalia. His father served as a judge in several Nazi trials after the war.

After completing school and serving in an artillery unit, he studied law and briefly worked as a lawyer before being elected to the European Parliament in 1989 and the German Bundestag in 1994. He then rose through the ranks of the CDU, becoming the leader of its parliamentary group and opposition leader in 1998.

On the verge of the highest political success, Merz’s steep rise came to a sudden end when Angela Merkel began taking over the party leadership. Losing the internal power struggle, he vacated leadership positions in 2004, and in 2009, left politics altogether.

Over the years, Merz served in various management and board positions of financial companies, including the supervisory board of BlackRock Asset Management Germany. This earned him personal wealth, a reputation as a financial expert, as well as accusations of being a finance lobbyist.

During this period, Merz also chaired the Atlantik-Brücke, an association promoting German-American understanding and Atlanticism.

With the end of Merkel’s decade-long reign as chancellor, Merz recognized a second chance and started a comeback, which was thwarted by many remaining Merkel loyalists in the party.

After two unsuccessful runs at the party leadership, and a disastrous CDU election campaign in 2021 that earned only 24% of the votes, Merz won overwhelming support from party members, many of them frustrated by the CDU's lax immigration policy.

Despite planning to run on a platform to reform Germany’s lagging economy, the immigration issue became the dominating issue after several horrific terror attacks committed by immigrants shook the country during the 2025 election campaign.

After an Afghan immigrant murdered a toddler and another man with a knife in January, Merz presented a five-point plan to limit immigration, vowing to implement it immediately if he was elected chancellor.

Merz plans to return the CDU to a more conservative policy after Merkel took the party to the left on many issues.

As opposition leader, Merz visited Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, invasion and expressed his condolences and support for the country. He said Germany would continue supporting Israel “with no ifs or buts,” adding that his country should restrain itself from giving Israel advice about the way it is fighting in Gaza.

He also demanded that German citizenship be given only to people who stand with Israel. The others “have no business here,” he said. When asked whether Germany should give asylum to refugees from Gaza, Merz responded: “We already have enough young antisemitic men in the country.”

Merz also vowed to end the covert limits on weapons sales to Israel, and in his strongest signal of support, has reiterated his promise that Netanyahu would be welcome to visit Germany despite the arrest warrants issued by the International Criminal Court.

Somewhat unusually among leading German politicians, Merz is a family man, and will be the first German chancellor with his own children since Helmut Kohl, chancellor from 1990 to 1998.

He and his wife Charlotte have known each other since college, married in 1981, and have three children and seven grandchildren.

Now, Merz will have to face possibly the tallest task of his political career: Forming a government with the Social Democrats, some of whom smeared him as a fascist-enabler and collaborator with Germany’s widely boycotted right-wing "Alternative for Germany" (AfD) party throughout the election campaign.

After the January terror attack, Merz didn’t pull back a Bundestag motion to limit immigration, despite support from the AfD, breaking a political taboo.

Since then, he has reiterated his opposition to any active cooperation with the AfD. However, the move made forming a government with the Social Democrats, which remains the only viable path without the AfD, highly complex.