Merz reshuffles cabinet as CDU rebellion exposes chancellor's weakened grip

The reshuffle

Chancellor Friedrich Merz concluded an 11-day cabinet reshuffle on 29 July with the election of Thorsten Frei as the new CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader. Frei received 91.9 percent of the vote, a result Merz hoped would signal discipline after days of turmoil. The overhaul also brought Steffen Bilger into the transport ministry, replacing Patrick Schnieder, and moved Carsten Linnemann to health, with Nina Warken taking over as chancellery minister. Merz told reporters on 27 July that he expected no further changes and that the government was the right one for the remaining two and a half years of the term.

Why Schnieder had to go

The dismissal of Schnieder, a minister widely regarded as competent and low-key, became the flashpoint. Merz declined to explain his reasons publicly, saying he did not want to make them "the subject of public debate". At the Monday press conference he indirectly pointed to a policy disagreement: the new minister would be expected to mobilise private capital for infrastructure modernisation from the special fund, a task Schnieder had not fulfilled. Former chancellery chief Peter Altmaier and CDU veteran Wolfgang Bosbach openly criticised the handling of the departure. Even coalition partner SPD circles told the Frankfurter Allgemeine that Schnieder had done solid work and that other figures in the Merz camp were more deserving of replacement.

I do not want to make my reasons the subject of public debate.

Rebellion in the ranks

At an extraordinary meeting of the conservative parliamentary group, deputies spoke with unusual bluntness. Deputy group leader Mathias Middelberg said he had rarely experienced such a bad atmosphere and warned that a single meeting would not be enough to fix it. Merz responded with a promise of better communication, pledging a politics that is "more explained" and "more transmitted". The Brandenburg head of the Junge Union, Laura Strohschneider, resigned from the CDU altogether, citing lost credibility of the party's leadership and a wrong government course.

I have rarely perceived such a bad atmosphere.

We must, I believe, in this situation also be careful not to circle too much around ourselves.

Pension row with eastern premiers

Just as Merz sought calmer waters, three CDU minister-presidents from eastern states opened a new front by challenging a central element of the government's pension reform. The coalition's pension commission had proposed a 33-point package that included abolishing the "pension at 63" for workers with 45 years of contributions. Merz and Labour Minister Bärbel Bas had fully endorsed the package in June, but the eastern state leaders, under heavy pressure from the AfD in polls ahead of autumn elections, now want the provision kept. The dispute threatens to unravel a reform Merz had counted on to demonstrate his government's ability to act.

A chancellor under siege

The reshuffle was meant to be a fresh start after the resignation of former parliamentary group leader Jens Spahn, but it has left Merz more exposed. Der Spiegel reported that no one in his inner circle still believes in his political future, and that he could face a palace revolt after the state elections. Merz, who once mocked Olaf Scholz as a "plumber of power", is now described by critics in similar terms: self-assured, blustering, and disconnected from his own party. His summer reading list, which includes a papal encyclical on artificial intelligence and Christoph Hein's novel "Das Narrenschiff", has been met with irony in Berlin. Whether he will have time to finish the 750-page book is an open question.