Angela Merkel held the German chancellery between 2005 and 2021, 16 years during which she exercised undisputed leadership in her country that also extended to Europe. Her formula combined economic austerity with gestures of great moral stature, such as the opening of borders to Syrian refugees during the 2015 crisis. Managing her legacy, however, is proving especially complicated for Germany, with a stagnant economy and a rise of the extreme right that was unthinkable just a few years ago.

The nightmare continues for German Chancellor, Friedrich Merz. If the defeat of his party, the CDU, and the triumph of the far-right in the state of Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago were a shock, the results in the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin have confirmed the deep crisis in which the traditional right-wing party finds itself. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, for the first time, it has been left out of a state Parliament and in Berlin Die Linke (The Left) has beaten them.

Still in shock from the far-right victory in the eastern state of Saxony-Anhalt two weeks ago, Germany is taking the temperature of the ultra-wave this Sunday in the elections in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and also in Berlin. The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) is looking to leverage the momentum of the victory in Saxony-Anhalt to try and repeat it in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the second eastern state to head to the polls. And it could succeed, although far from an absolute majority and with few options to govern. Polls give the AfD 37% of the votes, followed very closely by the Social Democrats, currently in government, with 35%.

Without the necessary majority to govern, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is relying on defectors to come to power in Saxony-Anhalt. "I do not close the doors to anyone, I do not believe in sanitary cordons," said the party leader and election winner, Ulrich Siegmund, after an election in which the ultra-rightists came close to an absolute majority. Siegmund has already expressed his desire to forge a stable majority because governing as a minority would mean depending "on the mood of one deputy or another." Even so, he is calling on "individual actors who are willing to jump over their own shadow and who consider that the future of Saxony-Anhalt is more important than their own careers." Mind you, the condition set by the ultra-rightists is that their "basic positions are maintained."

Ahead of the regional elections in March, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, a conservative, is searching for the best way to combat the far right, which he has long considered a "tough rival" and probably his party's "biggest political rival." The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has categorically rejected any cooperation between his party and the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), the main opposition party, although some conservative voices have raised the possibility in recent months of opening up to some form of cooperation with the far right.

Renew or die. The cabaret Berlin politician renews his repertoire with the change of government in Germany and the arrival of the conservative Friedrich Merz to the chancelleryThe German dictionary Duden defines cabaret, a Germanized word originating from French cabaret, as "minor art in the form of sketches and songs that parodic and humorously criticize the political situation or current events."

Joachim-Friedrich Martin Josef Merz – Friedrich Merz’s full name – has gone from being Angela Merkel’s political rival within the conservative party to becoming Germany’s new chancellor. Merz, 69, will govern Europe’s largest economy for the next four years in coalition with the Social Democrats, after his party won the federal elections last FebruaryAnd after he has gained enough support in the Bundestag to be elected head of government, despite the scare of the first vote, in which he did not obtain enough votes: a warning that he probably will not have a peaceful term in office.

Germany will have as chancellor Friedrich Merz, a politician with a marked aversion to everything public, to feminism and to the rights of minorities, and who has promised to restrict borders "from the first day" of his mandate. He is a multimillionaire, a braggart and a long-winded man, in line with other leaders of the global right, but always within the limits imposed by the Hegelian tradition of German liberalism and nationalism. Merz represents the CDU that is furthest from Merkel (her policy of welcoming more than a million refugees ten years ago is a milestone and a legacy that many still do not know how to deal with, neither on the right nor on the left), and also the one that has the least problems in understanding the neo-Nazis of Alternative for Germany.