German chancellor Friedrich Merz used his first major address to Parliament on Wednesday to champion military rearmament and pledge unconditional support for Ukraine—while offering little in the way of concrete solutions for Germany’s migration crisis or rising cost of living.
His hour-long speech devoted more time to foreign threats than domestic concerns, sidelining the core issues that had driven many voters away from the previous left-wing government.
As German media pointed out, the entire first half of the nearly one-hour speech was nothing but “a call to arms,” focusing on rearmament and geopolitical posturing, cramming all the domestic issues waiting to be addressed in the last 25 minutes.
“The Bundeswehr must become the strongest army in Europe. Our friends and partners expect this from us, they demand it,” Merz declared, making Germany’s enormous, debt-fueled rearmament plan the absolute central piece of his program.
Whether the German economy can handle the dramatic transformation is another matter.
He was given a mandate, above all, “to defend our freedom resolutely against their enemies,” Merz said, adding that the enemy is Russia, both externally and internally. The latter remark was widely interpreted as a thinly veiled attack on the AfD, the main opposition party and now the most popular political force in the country.
Under Merz, the establishment’s attack line appears to be shifting—from painting the AfD as far-right to portraying it as a domestic threat aligned with Russia. And the baseline in this crisis is that Germany stands by Ukraine, “no ifs and buts.”
But Merz’s speech failed to address the crises that matter most to German families: uncontrolled migration, rising crime, and economic pressure.
Merz’s lukewarm stance on migration was expected, as he had already slapped his electorate in the face with his U-turns on electoral promises countless times in the past few months. There was no mention of speeding up deportations or stopping illegal entries at the borders; only the vague intention to assert “more control … in accordance with EU law.”
Also, while Merz did say that low-qualified immigration “is not in the interest of the prosperity of our country,” he immediately turned around to make it clear once again that Germans should not expect any radical change from him. “Germany is a country of immigration,” he said. “It was, it is, and it will stay that way.”
The same vagueness characterized Merz’s comments on the economy.
For now, with defense a priority, Merz’s previously floated minimum wage raise will not be possible. The chancellor thinks 2026 is “achievable,” depending on the tariff situation. But fret not, because Merz will renew the “promise of prosperity.” Yes, you caught that right. Not “prosperity,” but only the “promise” of it.
The one thing that Merz conveniently did not address—but other party leaders, including Green co-leader Katharina Dröge, did after his speech—was the fact that he was barely elected Chancellor by the Bundestag last week.
Indeed, being the only chancellor in post-war German history who was approved only in the second round, thanks to his remarkably small majority, is deeply embarrassing.
The Chancellor spoke as if he had been given an unprecedented trust by the German people to restore the country’s greatness on the international scene by making it Europe’s leading military power. Whereas the truth is that people didn’t really choose him; they just rejected Scholz and his domestic policies, demanding a change in their lives, and not on a far-away battlefield. If there’s one thing Merz made clear already, he’s not the one to deliver that change.