Robin Alexander

Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces major challenges. While Trump and Putin are destroying the old world order, the AfD is threatening to destabilize the political center in Germany. The Chancellor wants to govern in a completely different way to the coalition that was voted out of office. Yet the challenges are the same: economic crisis, climate change, migration and rearmament of the Bundeswehr. Is Merz up to the task? And what does he need to learn from the Ampel disaster in order to seize what may be his last chance to save our democracy from the final rise of the populists? Alexander tells the story behind the scenes: from Merz’s taboo-breaking with the AfD and secret talks with Olaf Scholz to the drama surrounding the trillion-euro debt package.

Robin Alexander is one of the leading journalists in political Berlin. He was an editor at taz and a reporter at Vanity Fair. In 2013, he was awarded the prestigious Theodor Wolff Prize. His book Letzte Chance (2025) is a SPIEGEL bestseller. He has been deputy editor-in-chief of Die Welt since 2019.

In the series And now?

Information on the event series:
How Germany and Europe remain capable of acting
Germany and Europe are facing major challenges – but every crisis also opens up opportunities for renewal.
Under the title “And now?”, this series brings together renowned experts from politics, science, journalism and economics. They analyze the causes of the current crises and at the same time point out concrete perspectives: for a sustainable economy, a resilient democracy, a realistic European policy and a state that protects security and freedom in equal measure.