Friedrich Merz's conservatives won national election Conservatives need Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats for coalition But Merz's imperious style is riling leading SPD politicians Merz sent ...

Merz needs support from Greens for borrowing plans Wants infrastructure fund, sweeping reform of debt rules Crunch talks later on Monday Promised spending bonanza jolted markets last week AfD and ...

But, although he will not become chancellor for some weeks, Friedrich Merz, who won Germany’s election on February 23rd, has just transformed his country with a stroke of commendable boldness.

The early signs are unexpectedly promising. The first step towards Mr Merz being effective on the European stage is for him to forge a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats at home ...