"We're back on track," said Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's center-right Christian Democrats (CDU) on Tuesday, after it became clear that he would be the next chancellor candidate for the center-right alliance of the CDU and its Bavarian counterpart, the Christian Socialist Union (CSU).

Merz announced his candidacy alongside CSU head Markus Söder, who had increasingly been posturing as Merz's political opponent. But at the announcement on Tuesday, Söder stressed that he fully supported Merz, and that they were united by a common goal to win the next election.

Next week, the chairs of both sister parties, known together as the Union, will give their formal approval. That will officially make Merz the alliance's lead candidate for the upcoming federal election, set for September 2025 — putting him on track to potentially challenge the incumbent, Chancellor Olaf Scholz. The chancellor has said he would like to run again, but his candidacy hasn't been confirmed by his center-left party.

During Tuesday's announcement, Merz highlighted topics he found particularly important: migration, which he said was "still a big issue," and the economy, which he aims to realign with the social market principles which have historically shaped Germany's economic and social policies since reunification in 1990.

Merz argued that Germany's current economic........

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