Germans will go to the polls in autumn 2025 to vote for a new federal parliament.
In the latest polls conducted in mid-September, the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU) parties were riding high at over 30 percent.
The conservative bloc will be hoping these poll numbers come to fruition so they can govern Germany once again. A year is a long way off and a lot can change. But if the CDU/CSU do win the next election Friedrich Merz will likely become the next German Chancellor.
This week Merz, 68, was crowned the chancellor candidate by his party, knocking Bavarian state leader Markus Söder out of the race.
Merz announced his intention to get the current coalition government, made up of the Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Free Democrats (FDP), out of government.
"We have only one goal, to dislodge the 'traffic light' coalition and to get Germany back on track," said Merz.
Merz will be going up against current Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democrats, who is the party's chancellor candidate once again. The SPD are currently hovering around third place in recent polls with about 15 percent, just behind the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).
Who is Friedrich Merz and what does he stand for?
The right-wing leaning conservative has made a remarkable comeback to the German political scene despite some ups and downs.
The wealthy father-of-three had withdrawn from frontline politics in 2002 after a party power struggle with former chancellor and CDU stalwart Angela Merkel
But he announced in 2020 he was quitting his job on the supervisory board of the German arm of investment firm BlackRock to dedicate himself to politics and helping the CDU "renew itself".
The corporate lawyer then failed in two previous bids to win the CDU leadership but emerged as leader in 2021, taking the baton from Armin Laschet.
Favoured by the CDU's most conservative members, Merz has been shifting the party to the right in a bid to claw back voters lost to the anti-immigration AfD.
During the unveiling of the CDU's Grundsatzprogramm, which sets out the party's core principles, in May this year, Merz underlined how he would like to run Germany, with a focus on tougher asylum rules, identity politics plus incentives to work longer hours and later in life.
READ ALSO: Tax cuts and military service - how the CDU wants to change Germany
Perhaps it's not surprising then that during the migration debate that's flared in the last few months, Merz has tried to position himself as the politician who's not afraid to speak up.
Following the fatal knife attack in August in which three people were killed in Solingen allegedly by a failed Syrian asylum seeker with links to the Islamic State (IS) group, Merz called for a meeting with Chancellor Scholz and then spoke to the press about the tougher rules he wanted to see in Germany, which included declaring a "national emergency".
Scholz was keen to hit back in a recent Bundestag debate that the CDU was "talking in slogans" but "not getting anything done".
"You're the type of politician who believes that he's solved the migration issue after one interview in the Bild am Sonntag," Scholz said, referring to Germany's popular right-wing tabloid. "But you've barely left the editorial offices before you've forgotten what you proposed."
Merz is generally conservative on social issues and pro-business when it comes to economic policy. He wants the focus of the CDU to be centred on family and identity.
For instance, the CDU under Merz is pushing Leitkultur (leading culture) which the party says means "a shared awareness of home and belonging", an "understanding of our traditions and customs" and knowledge of German culture and language, as well as a commitment to the German constitution.
Their political programme also states that immigrants should accept these things "without ifs or buts".
READ ALSO: Could Germany's dual nationality law be reversed?
What's the reaction to Merz as chancellor candidate?
Some politicians slammed Merz' policies and raised concerns about him keeping up the Brandmauer (firewall) against working with the AfD. All mainstream parties currently refuse to work with the AfD, preventing them from entering government.
Left Party leader Janine Wissler said the CDU was on a "heartless" course and that Merz was no guarantee for the stability of the Brandmauer against the far-right.
Green Party leader Ricarda Lang told the Tagesspiegel that by choosing Merz as its candidate for chancellor, the CDU/CSU had "bid farewell to the Merkel era".
Next year's federal election is about "who we want to be as a country", she added. "We are looking forward to a sporting competition for the best ideas for the future of the country, not for its past."
Meanwhile, Chancellor Scholz kept it simple. In response to a question on the matter, he said: "It's fine with me if Friedrich Merz is the Union's candidate for chancellor."
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