Germany’s Merz agrees coalition deal with centre-left

BERLIN – German conservatives under chancellor-in-waiting, Mr Friedrich Merz, agreed a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) on April 9, aiming to revive growth in Europe’s largest economy just as a global trade war threatens recession.

The deal caps weeks of haggling between Mr Merz and the SPD after he topped elections in February but fell well short of a majority, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD)

surging into second place.

Pressure to reach a deal has taken on new urgency as the government will take charge at a time of global turbulence in an escalating trade conflict sparked by

US President Donald Trump’s sweeping import tariffs.

The conservative Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU) bloc and the SPD will present their agreement to form a new government at 3pm local time (9pm Singapore time), the CSU party said.

Mr Merz, who called Mr Trump’s US an unreliable ally, has already vowed to build up defence spending as Europe faces a hostile Russia and to support businesses struggling with high costs and weak demand.

He has also pledged to get tougher on migration, moving Germany away from a more liberal immigration policy under his conservative predecessor Angela Merkel during the 2015 European migrant crisis.

The coalition deal must still be ratified by a vote of the SPD’s membership.

If they back the deal, the chancellorship will return to the conservatives after the three-year interregnum of the SPD’s Mr Olaf Scholz, whose tenure was marked by the economic and political fallout following

Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

AfD tops poll

German economic institutes have cut back their forecast for growth in 2025 to 0.1 per cent from the 0.8 per cent they had expected in September, sources told Reuters on April 8. Germany has endured two years of contraction already, and the tariffs are a sharp blow to its highly export-focused economy.

Mr Merz told Reuters this week that the tariff-induced chaos on global financial markets made it all the more important to form a government quickly, a sentiment echoed by outgoing Finance Minister Joerg Kukies of the SPD.

“A possible trade conflict increases the risk of recession, there is no question about that,” he told Deutschlandfunk radio.

He said the coalition partners had already agreed to support a free trade zone between the European Union and the US, while being open to further cross-border trade deals.

The coalition is the only possible two-party majority that excludes the AfD, whose support has surged on a nativist, anti-migration agenda.

In a blow to Mr Merz, a survey by Ipsos released on April 9 showed the AfD topping the polls for the first time with 25 per cent, overtaking Mr Merz’s conservatives who slipped to 24 per cent.

It follows another poll by the Forsa institute, which showed that 60 per cent of respondents said Mr Merz was not fit to be chancellor, including 28 per cent of CDU/CSU voters.

After winning the election, Mr Merz pushed measures through Parliament allowing him to unleash a borrowing bonanza to fund a big boost in defence and infrastructure spending and support struggling German companies.

But the move, while providing his new government with a massive windfall, received criticism, including from some of his own supporters for pivoting away from a promise of fiscal rigour.

Mr Merz cuts a very different figure from Ms Merkel, a consensual conservative who ran Germany for 16 years before Mr Scholz.

Blaming her centrism and liberal immigration policies for the AfD’s growing strength, Mr Merz has promised that a hard line on deporting those illegally resident in the country and efficient government will turn the tide. REUTERS