Mario Nawfal
🚨🇩🇪MERZ STEPS UP AS EUROPE’S NEW POWER PLAYER Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting, is poised to redefine Europe’s future after his CDU/CSU alliance clinched 29% in yesterday's election. The 69-year-old’s journey is a rollercoaster - rising in the CDU under mentor Wolfgang Schäuble, only to be sidelined by Angela Merkel in 2002. He ditched politics for a lucrative decade at BlackRock and Atlantik-Brücke, pushing U.S-EU ties, then stormed back in 2022 to lead CDU. Yesterday's win hands him Europe’s biggest economy within a transatlantic rift he calls an “epochal severance.” Merz’s pitch? Tough borders, tax cuts, and a Europe unbound from a wobbly U.S. Big dreams, with bigger stakes. Source: Politico
Mario Nawfal
🚨🇩🇪MERZ’S CONSERVATIVES PUSH COALITION TALKS AFTER SLIM WIN Friedrich Merz’s CDU/CSU snagged 28.5% in Germany’s election—weak, but enough to lead. Now they’re scrambling to lock in a deal with the SPD (16.4%) as quickly as possible. The AfD’s 20.8% surge looms large, but
