Union Chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz (CDU) has accused the SPD-led federal government of leading the country into a phase of economic and political uncertainty. The CDU wants to end this after three and a half years of opposition back to government responsibility, he said on Saturday at a CDU event in Schmallenberg, North Rhine-Westphalia. “We have every chance of being able to do this.”
Merz was born in Schmallenberg elected as the CDU's direct candidate for the federal election in the Hochsauerland district. He received 266 of the 269 votes cast. The Union is currently clearly leading in the election polls nationwide and is well over 30 percent.
The CDU chairman warned the SPD against conducting an election campaign with false information against him. SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz wants to position himself as a “peace chancellor in the pension election campaign against Friedrich Merz”. But here he makes it clear: “The retirement age is 67. And nothing will change that.” There will also be no pension cuts with him. “Anyone who claims otherwise is lying to the German public.”
Because of the early federal election Germany is now facing a difficult time, because there will only be a provisional budget management for months, said Merz. “This time of uncertainty” will “not only have an impact on domestic policy,” but also “in Europe and in foreign policy.”
The Union will run its election campaign especially with economic policy deny it, said the CDU chairman. Germany needs a strong national economy again – otherwise everything else would burst “like soap bubbles in the air.”
He wants one there “fundamental policy change”, which does not rely on state-imposed specifications and regulations, but rather on sensible framework conditions and incentives for citizens and companies, said Merz. “We will give people the courage to take their own fate into their own hands again. We will reward hard work again.”
After taking over government, the CDU/CSU would therefore also “send this monster of this so-called citizen's money law where it belongs – namely into the mothballs of social policy.” In addition, after taking over government, a number of others would Decisions made by the traffic light government were reversed. This applies, for example, to decisions on agriculture or the abandonment of the reduced VAT rate for the catering industry.
