Wife Charlotte Merz chats
Friedrich Merz as a loving husband and “grandpa”
April 28, 2024, 1:10 p.m
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CDU leader Merz is not particularly well received by young women. His wife tries to counteract this. In an interview, Charlotte Merz describes her husband as a loving husband and grandfather. She also becomes political when it comes to an issue.
The Union is clearly at the top in the polls, but the CDU leader’s personal values are rather weak: Now Charlotte Merz, judge and wife of Friedrich Merz, presents her partner as approachable in an interview. However, she kept a low profile in the “Bild” newspaper about the question of her candidacy for chancellor. “Nice try. But I won’t say anything about that,” she replied. She avoided the question of whether Merz would be a good chancellor: “I am biased on this question.”
The 68-year-old is considered the favorite for the Union candidacy if the traffic light coalition breaks prematurely, but wants to prevent an open power struggle. A regular nomination should take place after the state elections in the east in September. Merz’s own approval ratings are rather low, especially among young women.
His wife, who is herself a CDU member, described him in the interview as a loving husband and grandfather. The grandchildren would adore their “grandpa,” she reported, describing the couple’s Sunday ritual: “My husband gets the rolls on his bike. We have a hearty breakfast, read the newspaper and tell each other about our week.”
Compared to Scholz and Habeck at the front
In the ZDF political barometer from March, for example, Merz only came third among CDU and CSU voters when assessing the chances of success for the next federal election. According to the survey, CSU boss Markus Söder would have the best chance of a good result.
In the current trend barometer from RTL/ntv, Merz does well in a duel with the potential chancellor candidates from the SPD and the Greens. If the Chancellor were elected directly, 17 percent would vote for SPD incumbent Olaf Scholz, 22 percent for Merz and 16 percent for the green Federal Economics Minister Robert Habeck. If it were not Habeck who stood for the Greens, but Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock, 20 percent would choose Scholz, 25 percent would choose Merz and 16 percent would choose the Green politician.
Charlotte Merz not only spoke about her marriage in the newspaper, but also became political about child care in Germany. “As a CDU member, mother and politically interested woman, I have been asking myself for years why childcare expenses cannot be deducted from taxes indefinitely – in contrast to travel expenses. I find this to be deeply unfair.” She regrets for today’s generation of parents that it is still so difficult to combine family and work and that there is a lack of daycare and kindergarten places.