Who is Friedrich Merz, the favorite to become Germany's new chancellor?

Friedrich Merz, a migration hard-liner and longtime rival of Angela Merkel, is poised to become Germany’s next chancellor as his party, the Christian Democratic Union, leads in polls alongside its affiliate, the Christian Social Union, just days before the election. Merz was elected as the CDU’s designated candidate for chancellor in this year’s federal elections after leading the party and heading the opposition CDU-CSU parliamentary group since 2022. The CSU, a dominant regional party in Bavaria, forms a union with the CDU at the federal level, setting the stage for Merz’s potential rise to power.

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