Laila Kirkpatrick, Staff Writer
Conservative leader in Germany Friedrich Merz is set to become Germany’s 10th chancellor after the deal was finalized on Wednesday to form a new government. Merz, 69, will succeed the outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who has vowed to prioritize European unity and the continent’s security as he grapples with the new Trump administration and Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Merz’s two-party Union bloc was the strongest force from Germany’s election on February 23rd. Merz then turned to the Social Democrats, Scholz’s center-left party, to put together a coalition with a parliamentary majority. He has already pushed through plans to enable higher defense spending and faced more pressure to finish the deal after the tariffs were enacted by President Trump.
