After 100 days, Germany's Merz faces discord at home

GERMAN Chancellor Friedrich Merz has driven sweeping changes in security, economic and migration policy during his first 100 days in office, but faces widening cracks in his uneasy coalition.

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On election night in February, a jubilant Merz promised to bring a bit of "rambo zambo" to the post - using a colloquialism that can evoke a wild and joyous ride, or chaos and mayhem.

Having achieved his life's ambition at age 69 to run Europe's top economy, Merz lost no time to push change, mostly in response to transatlantic turbulence sparked by US President Donald Trump.

"Germany is back," Merz said, vowing to revive the economy, the military and Berlin's international standing after what he labelled three lacklustre years under his centre-left predecessor Olaf Scholz.

Even before taking office, Merz's Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) and their governing partners from Scholz's Social Democratic party (SPD) loosened debt rules and unlocked hundreds of billions of euros for Germany's armed forces and its crumbling infrastructure.

Merz vowed to build "Europe's largest conventional army" in the face of a hostile Russia and keep up strong support for Ukraine in lockstep with Paris and London.

A promise to ramp up Nato spending endeared Merz to Trump, who greeted him warmly at a White House meeting in June, only weeks after a jarring Oval Office showdown with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.