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To be fair Merz lied a lot campaigning (shocker, I know) but one of those lies was about taking debt which is extremely unpopular among the uniformed voters who think of debt as a cardinal sin that immediately destroys any country. That‘s why even his boomer voters hate him.
+++ BREAKING +++ Politician lies! +++ BREAKING +++
Yeah I know and the way things are changing in politics this may sound trivial. But there is a story to this. You see usually when politicians lie they make big promises and then simply forget about them and don‘t deliver.
Merz campaigned on the premise of not taking any more debt, saying it is irresponsible. That was pretty much his whole thing. But as soon as the election was through he immediately pushed through more debt with the old government even before he took office. This was unprecedented. The old government dissolved months earlier because they couldn‘t find an agreement on debt. Merz‘ party was in the opposition. They kept saying they would block any attempt to take any debt no matter what. Saying it would ruin the country. Of course it wouldn‘t but after decades of indoctrination their voters firmly believed that any debt is bad debt and will be our ruin.
So yeah this move was a slap in the face for his voters and made him extremely unpopular among conservatives even before he became chancellor.
Funnily enough economists warned exactly this would happen because christ democrats had a huge hole in their budget that could only be filled by taking a loan.
Merz has long been known as a pathological liar, and corrupt to the core. The single greatest achievement of Angela Merkel is that she managed to keep him out of power for 16 years.
Anyone who didn't expect Merz to lie about everything is just dumb. The writing wasn't just on the wall, it was on every wall. IN ALL FUCKING CAPS, AND BOLD TYPEFACE.