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He was right next to the highway, radiating at a crowd during rush hour, and the spirit of Friedrich Merz had headed for speedometers.
“If you recently bought a new car, have you noticed what type of automatic systems which it is equipped now?” The man at the driver’s headquarters to be the next Chancellor of Germany asked Friday afternoon. “If you drive two kilometers per hour too quickly, the thing starts at BIP.”
These beeps are the product of European Union regulation. For Mr. Merz, they were a opportune and well tidy example of government intrusions which he blamed for having masked the German economy and frustrating his citizens.
They were also a practical element in the problems that Mr. Merz hopes to lounge, like a leather captain chair, during the last section before the German legislative elections on February 23.
Mr. Merz and his party, the conservative Christian Democrats, endured two nervous weeks after having taken a political bet and breaking a taboo old decades by voting with rivals on the far right in a failed attempt to harden the laws on Migration.
The outcry followed. The rival candidates felt an opening. But the polls made from the Hubbub indicate that Mr. Merz appeared relatively unscathed. Even if he is now considered a more polarizing figure, the former businessman and faithful conservative for a long time seems to go to the Chancelle.
Mr. Merz refocuses his native discourse on EU regulations, federal administrative formalities, labor ethics, energy costs and other ingredients of what business leaders call the components of a crisis German competitive. He tells the voters that an increasingly volatile world needs a stronger and more stable chancellor behind the wheel than the chief of Germany, Olaf Scholz, social democrats in the center-left.
The price of detour for the policy of Mr. Merz in immigration policy and the advantages of returning the campaign to a more friendly and familiar lawn, were exposed during the judgment he made last week in the little one Western city of Stromberg, where the only restaurant open for lunch, the city center was a ice cream fair.
About 1 worker out of 6 is employed in the manufacture of the highly wooded state and vineyard producer, in Rhineland-Palatine. The state economy decreased by almost 5% in 2023, according to government statistics. A party official said that the place had been chosen partly because of its proximity to the highway, easy for participants and Mr. Merz to be reached by car. Many participants said they had hunted from outside the city.
They were welcomed, as is more and more the case for Mr. Merz these days, by demonstrators. Since Mr. Merz broke the taboo to work with the alternative for Germany or AFD, of which parties are classified by German information as extremists and indignant that the voters have taken the follow -up of the judgment of The campaign when stopping the campaign. Some accuse Mr. Merz of working with the Nazis. Others call it one.
“It is not suitable as Chancellor,” said Walter Witzke, one of the 150 demonstrators who gathered at almost icy temperatures outside the Stromberg gymnasium where Mr. Merz spoke. “He made the biggest error by voting with AFD now.”
Mr. Witzke wore a sign that said “Five minutes until 1933”, a reference at the dawn of the Nazi era of Germany. His wife, Heike Witzke, who joined her during the demonstration, said that she feared for the democracy of the nation – and was saddened by the counterpoup against immigrants. “You should never lose hope, but for the moment, it’s very, very bad,” she said.
Ms. Witzke said most of her friends came from abroad and she cooks cookies to celebrate the holidays with Muslim neighbors. “It works, we have no problem,” she said.
Inside the gymnasium, where an 11 -piece jazz group warmed the crowd with hits with a living room act, Mr. Merz’s supporters were much more concerned with immigrants who receive social assistance.
“This migration of poverty, we are simply overloaded now,” said Elke Müller, director of a cosmetics company.
She said that she was a fan of Mr. Merz and that he was acceptable to him to push the more severe immigration measures for which AFD voted. “I think he has economic expertise,” she said. “He can assert himself. And you can count on him. And he is trustworthy. And I think he’s the right man for the time we have now. »»
The polls suggest that a plurality of voters agrees. They show that Mr. Merz and his party oscillate approximately 30% support in the German electorate, a relatively low number for a potential chancellor, but ahead of his nearest rival.
Some surveys have suggested that the migration gambit is slightly at Mr. Merz with voters. Others have found a slight gain. None fundamentally suggests the race. According to the last Police investigation30% of Germans say they will vote for Mr. Merz’s party, 1 percentage point more than at the end of January. AFD is second, the social democrats and the Greens are lagging behind.
Mr. Merz approached the controversy of migration-vote towards the end of his speech, which extended more than an hour. He defended his decision but has sworn not to form a government with AFD – a distinction which, according to Ms. Müller, was important to them.
Mr. Merz called migration one of the critical problems faced by the country, but he relied more on his economic argument, promising to reduce taxes and regulations for businesses and build new nuclear reactors for Reduce energy costs.
The local candidate who presented Mr. Merz apologized that the fire safety regulations had capped the number of participants. She recognized the demonstrators, calling them a sign of democracy.
Mr. Merz told his audience that this month’s elections would be a “directional election”, for Germany and the world.
“Perhaps we should take a look through the national borders and take a brief moment to consider the situation around us,” he said at some point. He then listed world challenges, notably “the war in Ukraine, an increasingly aggressive China, major problems in the cohesion of the European Union” and the new administration of President Trump.
In the midst of these challenges, he asked: “Where is Germany, in fact?”
While Mr. Merz ended, the last light of day was upset on the highway. The cheers grew up in the gymnasium. Outside, a few residents walked their dogs, looking at expressions combined in the glow of the rally. The police nestled in two and three.
The demonstrators had all erased.
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