The sweat was dripping off Friedrich Merz after the frontrunner to become Germany’s next chancellor saw his bid to outflank an ascendant far right spectacularly backfire in the Bundestag.

Merz, now 69, represents a sharp rightward turn from Merkel’s centrist legacy. His campaign motto is “A Germany we can be proud of again,” but the slogan, argues Hartwig Pautz, a political scientist at the University of the West of Scotland, is set to collide with some very harsh realities.

Conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz of the Christian Democrats has reaffirmed his principled rejection of cooperation with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), despite Wednesday's joint approval of a Bundestag motion on migration policy.