On the off chancellor: Friedrich Merz, one year in
The Intelligence from The Economist
The Economist
4.5 • 3.7K Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Germany’s chancellor came to office making big promises. A year later they are unfulfilled, his government is squabbling and he has drawn President Donald Trump’s ire. The advertising industry is, inevitably, starting to peddle its wares quietly in AI chatbots. And a historical look at the oratory around war and how it has taken a sharp turn for the worse.
Guests and host:
- Tom Nuttall, chief Germany correspondent
- Tom Wainwright, media editor
- Catherine Nixey, culture correspondent
- Rosie Blau, co-host of “The Intelligence”
- Jason Palmer, co-host of “The Intelligence”
Topics covered:
- Germany, Friedrich Merz, Donald Trump
- AI, chatbots, advertising
- rhetoric of war
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The Economist |
| 0:02.0 | Hello and welcome to the intelligence from The Economist. |
| 0:12.0 | I'm Jason Palmer. |
| 0:13.0 | And I'm Rosie Bloor. |
| 0:16.0 | Today on the show, why your chatbot is suddenly selling to you |
| 0:21.6 | and how the rhetoric of war has changed for the worse, |
| 0:25.0 | and little content warning here for the swarier. |
| 0:32.5 | But first... |
| 0:46.3 | ... But first... Friedrich Merz has something of an unpredictable streak in him. Off-color remarks, flashes of anger, notably against Angela Merkel, who chucked him out the upper ranks of their Christian Democratic Union. But he found his way back, and one year ago today, he took office as the oldest new chancellor in 75 years, |
| 1:01.0 | leading a centrist coalition with the Social Democrats. |
| 1:04.0 | As expected, he made bold early moves, shuffling ministries around and creating new ones, shoring up |
| 1:11.4 | defense ties with France and diplomatic ones with Poland. |
| 1:14.9 | But you might say it's all been downhill from there, because it's the problems at home |
| 1:19.2 | that were always going to test him. |
| 1:21.1 | Well, and his knack for getting on the nerves of the powerful. |
| 1:24.6 | This government took office one year ago with a mandate to lift the spirits of a country that had been in the economic dogums for years. |
| 1:33.1 | Tom Nottel is our chief Germany correspondent. |
| 1:36.0 | One year on, the mood is not good. |
| 1:39.6 | The hard right alternative for Germany is now leading in the opinion polls. |
| 1:43.3 | The government is embroiled |
| 1:45.3 | in endless internal squabbles over reforms. And in the last few days, Spragick-Matz has got himself |
| 1:51.8 | involved in a personal spat with Donald Trump, the President of the United States. His approval |
... |
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