Sixteen months into his chancellorship, Friedrich Merz finds himself in the paradoxical position of being publicly defended by his own party precisely because that defense has become necessary. Eight CDU state premiers issued a statement this week urging stability over personnel debates — a formulation that named, by refusing to name, the question now haunting German politics: whether the man who leads the country is the right man to do so. With the far-right AfD reshaping the electoral landscape and Merz's approval at a historic low, Germany is navigating the tension between institutional con