Friedrich Merz: High-flying conservative at summit of German politics

Friedrich Merz is set to become Germany's next chancellor on Tuesday, fulfilling a decades-long dream of rising to the summit of German politics. His conservative bloc will govern in coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), taking the reins less than three months after February's parliamentary elections. It's a personal triumph for the 69-year-old Merz, a keen amateur pilot who staged an emphatic comeback in recent years after once being largely written off from the German politica