Election countdown: New Germany, new Europe, new podcast

With just five weeks remaining until the German federal election, Friedrich Merz’s CDU is leading in the polls. But significant shifts in geopolitics—and opinion—can occur in weeks and days: and this election will take place in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s inauguration and amid the stagnation of the Franco-German engine. Now, recognising the importance of German leadership in Europe, Searching for Deutschland explores the foreign policy dimensions of Germany’s electoral campaign.

This week Mark Leonard welcomes editorial director and senior policy fellow Jeremy Cliffe, and ECFR’s Berlin office head and senior policy fellow Jana Puglierin, to discuss their new podcast, and Merz’s foreign and domestic policies. What exactly is the “Merz Doctrine”? How might Merz deal with the second Trump administration? And what are his views on Russia and Ukraine?

The podcast was recorded on January 16th 2025

Bookshelf:

The Divider Trump in the White House, 2017-2021by Peter Baker and Susan Glasser

Alone in a Trumpian world: The EU and global public opinion after the US elections by Timothy Garton Ash, Ivan Krastev, Mark Leonard 

The Merz doctrine: What a CDU-led government would mean for German foreign policy by Jeremy Cliffe and Jana Puglierin

Searching for Deutschland podcast series