Germany’s Would-Be Chancellor Tries to Get Back on Cruise Control
Dogged by protesters, but apparently safe from damage in the polls, Friedrich Merz is putting a failed immigration gambit behind him.
Dogged by protesters, but apparently safe from damage in the polls, Friedrich Merz is putting a failed immigration gambit behind him.
The American president’s threat of tariffs is not in the interest of Europe’s nationalist parties, who are just as eager to put their own countries first.
Friedrich Merz and his Christian Democrats broke a political taboo by working with the hard-right Alternative for Germany to toughen rules on immigration. It did not pay off.
His comments to the hard-right Alternative for Germany party escalated efforts by the billionaire to influence the country’s election for chancellor next month.
But not all of the leading conservative populist parties in the world are the same — in rhetoric or on policy.
His influence is partly the result of a very online political establishment, and partly thanks to a right-leaning media that is hostile to Keir Starmer’s Labour government.
Political leaders have shunned the Alternative for Germany. But on his social media platform X, Mr. Musk is pitching the party as mainstream.
The leader of the anti-immigration, pro-Russia Freedom Party has been given the chance to try to form a government after months of coalition talks among mainstream parties collapsed.
With 211 million followers on social media, the multibillionaire seems intent on using his global platform to rattle British politics.
Elon Musk, the billionaire backer of Donald J. Trump, had been promoting Nigel Farage. But on Sunday Mr. Musk said Mr. Farage “doesn’t have what it takes.”