Analysis Who is Merz and what's in his in-tray?

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

- Kate Connolly

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 für Deutschland.

As testing as the domestic political and economic landscape is, however, many of Merz's most pressing challenges may well come from outside Germany. The man who once won plaudits by claiming he could simplify the life of millions of people by reducing tax rules so they would fit on the back of a beer coaster faces an altogether more complex reality.

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 face-to-face deals with Donald Trump, Merz was forced to switch his stance within hours after the US president flipped the narrative on Russia's war on 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 Trump's statements blaming Ukraine for the war. Merz called it "a classic reversal of the perpetrator-victim narrative".