One year after leading the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) back into government, German chancellor Friedrich Merz has sought to rally his party amid sliding poll numbers and mounting economic pressure.
Addressing around 1,000 delegates at the CDU’s national congress in Stuttgart on Friday, February 20th, Merz acknowledged shortcomings during his first year in office.
Perhaps we didn’t make it clear quickly enough after the change of government that we couldn’t accomplish this enormous reform effort overnight. I accept this criticism.
He urged the party not to succumb to “pessimism, fatalism, and intellectual laziness,” adding, “I want to motivate us to peak performance.”
The speech comes at a delicate moment. When the CDU won last February’s federal election with 28.5% of the vote, Merz promised to steer the party back to its conservative roots after the centrist era of former chancellor Angela Merkel.
Today, the party is polling at around 25%, with some surveys placing the opposition right-wing Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) ahead.
Merz governs in coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), a partnership he defended as necessary for stability.
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