THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY (February 27, 2025): The latest issue features ‘The Middle Man’ – Can Friedrich Merz mend Germany?

Can Germany’s chancellor-in-waiting fend off the far right? Plus: Bong Joon-ho interviewed

Diverting our eyes away from Trumpworld for a moment this week, attention shifted to Germany where Friedrich Merz’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance came out on top in the country’s federal elections.

For many though, the story of the night belonged to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland, which received more than a fifth of the vote and came top in virtually the entire eastern side of the country. Merz’s alliance did not win an outright majority so, having previously vowed not to work with the AfD, the chancellor-in-waiting must now try to form a grand coalition with other mainstream parties, which is likely to include Olaf Scholz’s heavily defeated SPD.

Amid surging support for the far right, Ashifa Kassam and Deborah Cole report from Berlin, where many people from immigrant backgrounds feel real fear for the future. Kate Connolly looks at Merz’s bulging in-tray as likely new leader of the EU’s largest economy, while in an opinion piece Musa Okwonga writes powerfully about the extent of anti-migrant feeling and xenophobia in Germany’s “time of the cowards”.