Compared to last October, the vote for the CDU/CSU is down slightly vis a vis the polls, the AfD have not rallied as much as their admirers would have believed.

"Friedrich Merz is perhaps the most international chancellor Germany has had since the war — if he becomes ... that we shouldn't expect a resounding common EU policy," he said and added that it will likely "be the usual game of muddling through."

Friedrich Merz has expressed a desire to ‘strengthen Europe as quickly as possible’ in the face of a growing rift between EU countries and the Trump administration.

While Merz is already setting the scene for his chancellery with an unprecedented, debt-funded investment announcement, Germany remains stuck with awkward double structures that limit the ability for Europe’s largest economy to act on foreign policy at a crucial time – thus constraining the continent’s capacities.

Germany's economy is in desperate need of foreign labor, but a political environment hostile to all kinds of immigrants makes it seem unlikely they'll get it.

Northern European countries traditionally unenthusiastic about higher spending are wary of Germany’s new-found desire to splash the cash.

(AP Photo/Martin Meissner) German Chancellor Olaf Scholz after first projections are announced during the election party at the Social Democratic Party (SPD) headquarters in Berlin, Germany, Sunday, March 23, 2025. (AP Photo/Ebrahim Noroozi) Alice Weidel ...

Germany has emerged from its recent election with a grand coalition of the center-right CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party likely, but the rise of the far-right AfD party and its anti-immigration rhetoric has sparked concerns about the future of European security and democracy.