Merz’s in-tray The pressing problems facing the EU's largest economy

Friedrich Merz, a former banker who has never been a minister, appears likely to be the next chancellor of Germany after his conservative CDU/CSU alliance won the most votes in Sunday’s crucial federal election.

- Kate Connolly BERLIN

Merz, a keen aviator and married father of three, whose wife prevented him from buying his own private plane until his children were out of the house (he now reportedly owns two), will want to make his mark early on. Here’s a brief look at his in-tray.

Relations with the US

Having presented himself early on in the election campaign as an assertive businessman who would be well equipped to make deals with Donald Trump, Merz was forced to switch his stance within hours after the US president flipped the narrative on Russia’s war in Ukraine.

The once optimistic Atlanticist received his first dose of realpolitik even before winning the top job. It seemed to turn him into an ashen-faced, furrow-browed realist, and his rhetoric quickly changed.

Merz did nothing to hide his shock after the president’s statements blaming Ukraine for the war. Merz called it “a classic reversal of the perpetrator-victim narrative”.

"He is likely to face calls to send troops to Ukraine as part of a deterrent force"