Merz became a ‘lame duck’ immediately after becoming Chancellor – Dmitry Solonnikov

Speaking with Alpha News, Russian political scientist Dmitry Solonnikov commented on Friedrich Merz’s election as Chancellor of Germany on his second attempt and the broader systemic crisis in European politics.

“We see that there is a very big problem with the current political system in Germany, with the political structure. This is evident even to members of the ruling parties—the SPD and the CDU/CSU—some of whom disagree with this policy. They voted in the first round of the chancellor elections against Merz. It is clear that he would have won anyway, if it had come to the third round, a simple majority would have been enough for him. Therefore, this is not a rejection of Merz in general but rather a demonstration of the fact that among the members of the ruling CDU/CSU/SPD bloc, there are politicians who believe that not everything is good in Germany and there is no need to pretend that everything is good. This is such an attempt to demonstrate their disagreement. They cannot do this openly, so they vote in a closed vote, without demonstrating who they are—showing their disagreement without showing their face.

And then, of course, the second round took place that same day. They conducted party political work, made it clear who was in charge, and said that if something went wrong, there could be party purges and a more careful investigation of who voted and how, so the second round took place. But the first round was enough to demonstrate that there are problems both within the coalition and among the current political parties,” Solonnikov said.

Commenting on the recent decision to recognize the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as right-wing extremist, he expressed the opinion that this is a manifestation of a systemic problem that has affected all of Europe.

“The attempt to ban the most popular AfD party, which is at the top of the ratings, is also an unprecedented situation for Germany. And the problems with the actual composition of the parliament and the exclusion of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance from there demonstrate that Germany is in a very precarious political situation. Merz became a ‘lame duck’ immediately after assuming office. In this situation, Germany is similar to its neighbors, Britain and France, where the political situation is also far from brilliant, and mainstream parties are increasingly losing their popularity. Once marginal politicians and political systems are gaining traction. This is a crisis for the whole of Europe, but it has manifested especially prominently in Germany,” the expert concluded.