But the party congress comes as Merz faces pressure over a limping economy, poor personal approval ratings and the sustained threat of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) ahead of several regional elections. A barometer of the party's mood at the national congress in the southern city of Stuttgart will be whether Merz gets re-elected as party chief with the customary result in the 90 percent range, or less.
Friedrich Merz's three-month bid to catapult Germany into the role of undisputed leader of Europe has come unstuck. His call for Europe to hand Ukraine access to 201bn (176bn) in frozen Russian central bank assets via a reparations loan was rejected at a decisive European Council meeting in Brussels. Instead, Ukraine is to be given a 90bn interest-free loan, backed by the EU's collective budget, covering two-thirds of what Ukraine will need between 2026-27.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Tuesday the new US National Security Strategy unveiled last week contained parts that were "unacceptable to us from a European perspective." Merz also said Europe needs to become less dependent on the United States, responding directly to Washington's strategic shift.
While other world leaders address the United Nations General Assembly, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is speaking as part of the Bundestag's deliberations on Germany's 2026 federal budget. Leaders of the other parliamentary groups also plan to take the floor as part of the general debate, which is traditionally used for a broad confrontation over the federal government's policies as a whole. Later in the day, the individual budgets for the foreign, defense and development ministries are scheduled.
