ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - Germany’s parliament is set to elect conservative Friedrich Merz, leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), as the country’s next chancellor on Tuesday.
“I am very confident that, from tomorrow, we will lead our country with strength, with a plan, and with confidence,” Merz said on Monday, with the 69-year-old repeatedly stating that he plans to re-energize the economy and cement it back on the world map.
The new government will feature a coalition between the CDU, its Bavarian sister party the Christian Social Union (CSU), and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD).
Christoph de Vries, the elected parliamentary state secretary at Germany’s federal interior ministry, stressed the need to revitalize Germany back toward economic success and halt illegal immigration.
“We must return Germany to the path of economic success. This is the most important thing. We are heading into the third year of economic recession. Therefore, we must strengthen economic growth,” de Vries told Rudaw.
“We have also firmly committed to stopping illegal immigration and have taken important steps for this purpose. That is why it is important for us to begin working quickly,” he affirmed.
The German federal parliamentary elections in February saw 630 seats contested with over 59 million eligible voters. Results showed a victory for the CDU/CSU alliance with 28.5 percent of the vote, followed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) with 20.5 percent, and the SPD with 16.4 percent.
“I know that now we face great challenges,” Stefanie Hubig, the elected justice minister from the SPD, told Rudaw. “As the designated justice minister, it is certainly important for me to strengthen our judicial system, to have an effective judiciary, so that we can promptly and jointly solve all these challenges.”
Issues such as immigration and the economy dominated the pre-election discourse.
In late January, the German parliament passed a motion that was put forth by the CDU, CSU, and AfD to tackle illegal immigration.
