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If anything unites the parties in Germany’s election campaign, it is running away from the former chancellor, whose legacy voters have soured on.
Feb. 9, 2025, 5:00 a.m. ET
A chorus of criticism greeted Friedrich Merz, the favorite to become Germany’s chancellor, last month when he broke a taboo against working with a hard-right party to pass legislation. But it was a lone voice of dissent that rocked the country’s political scene: Angela Merkel, the once-beloved former chancellor, who called Mr. Merz’s decision simply “wrong.”
Ms. Merkel and Mr. Merz have famously jockeyed to lead Germany’s Christian Democrats for much of this century. Ms. Merkel won the early rounds, served 16 years as chancellor, and retired in 2021. Mr. Merz finally has a chance to win her old job in elections this month.
But Ms. Merkel is complicating his efforts — both with her open critiques and, more important, with a policy legacy that German voters have soured on.
The German election is animated by concerns over a stagnant economy, a decade-long surge of immigration, high energy prices and tenuous national security, with Russia waging war to the east and President Trump threatening to upend NATO from the West. The problems have led to a reconsideration of Ms. Merkel and how she steered Germany.
It was Ms. Merkel who kept Germany’s borders open starting in 2015, allowing what became millions of refugees from Syria, Afghanistan and elsewhere to settle. That move has spurred a backlash among German voters. Many political leaders blame it for the rise of the hard-right party Alternative for Germany, or AfD, which has campaigned relentlessly on deporting certain immigrants and sits second behind the Christian Democrats in national polls.
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