German Chancellor Merz Follows Merkel’s Pro-Censorship Line

It may be a low bar, but some of the ideas put forward by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are an improvement on those of Angela Merkel, the previous chairwomen of CDU/CSU. After pointing out that “nothing” would be the easiest thing for Merz to do, the Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Sternberg notes that the chancellor is trying to take some small steps toward deregulation and lower taxes. By German standards, Merz is a free marketeer, but he governs in a coalition with the left-of-center Social Democratic Party (SPD). The maintenance of a “firewall” against the populist-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the failure of the free-market(ish) Free Democratic Party (FDP) to make it back into parliament at the last election meant that an ideologically absurd (post-Merkel) coalition with the SPD was the only way to go.

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Andrew Stuttaford

Andrew Stuttaford is the editor of National Review's Capital Matters.

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It may be a low bar, but some of the ideas put forward by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz are an improvement on those of Angela Merkel, the previous chairwomen of CDU/CSU. After pointing out that “nothing” would be the easiest thing for Merz to do, the Wall Street Journal’s Joseph Sternberg notes that the chancellor is trying to take some small steps toward deregulation and lower taxes. By German standards, Merz is a free marketeer, but he governs in a coalition with the left-of-center Social Democratic Party (SPD). The maintenance of a “firewall” against the populist-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) and the failure of the free-market(ish) Free Democratic Party (FDP) to make it back into parliament at the last election meant that an ideologically absurd (post-Merkel) coalition with the SPD was the only way to go.

And: