Removing Friedrich Merz as Chancellor, why now?

Although Friedrich Merz was re-elected as Chairman of CDU on 20/2/2026 securing 91.17% votes cast at the party's national convention held in Stuttgart his honeymoon was over within the span of few months. Voters wide across the German body politic are calling for his removal. Why now?

Here is a sampling of his stature:

1. Overall approval rate l remains within a narrow band of 14 to 21%

2. Popularity position is the last of 20 prominent leaders surveyed

3. Global acceptance the lowest for any European leaders

4. Most telling is CDU/CSU Union forecast that only 10% will vote for him again.

Let me analyse this tragedy under two captions: domestic compulsions and geoeconomics dictates.

Domestic compulsion

1. He declared war against the sanctum of Germany as a welfare state by diluting it in order to get out of the economic stagnation Germany is in now. Under the hubris “modernization” he is bent upon cutting down social security payments and economic relief measures as means of reducing budget deficit. Pruning statutory health care system in earnest has got him in crosshairs with elderly people and the low-income group

2. Fiscal reform is yet another idiocy. Whereas reducing tax burden on the low-income earners is a welcome sign his adamant refusal to resort to tax hike for high income earners placed him a juxtaposition. Both these measures are not only contradictory but do not help balancing the budget.

3. Fixing the threshold of 42% as overall taxation ceiling gives him no room to manoeuvre

4. Anti-migration policy which being implemented using inhuman deportation has been a thorn in the flesh.

Geoeconomics dictates

1. Macho Merz along with his buddy defence minister Boris Pistorius are at loggerheads with both Donald Trump and Vlad Putin. Both have expressed dis-pleasure over his conduct and statements

2. Raking up defence expenditure and avowing to become the most powerful military nation in Europe would not be seen favourably by three global powers America Russia and China and the two European heavy weights France and Britain.

3. Vlad suggested Gerhard Schroder as the negotiation person for Russo – German reconciliation. Friedrich Merz rejected it but yet to nominate an acceptable negotiator

4. Contrary to widely accepted notion the recent summit between Chinese President Xi Jinping and Friedrich Merz in Beijing on 25/2/2026 failed to get Chinese commitment for investing big in German industry & commerce.

My advice

Leaving aside the lack of impressive personality in Friedrich Merz, he has got to improve his charm and inter-personal relationship domestically with German population as a whole as well as in his transactions with global leaders.

More than anything else, Merz as the leader of Germany must navigate strategy amid domestic compulsion and geoeconomics to be acceptable and adored!  

 

Cheers!

 

Muthu Ashraff

Strategy Adviser

Mobile: + 94 777 265677

E-mail: cosmicgems@gmail.com

Blog:   Strategy Adviser

 

 

 ,