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Friedrich Merz
Photo: Bernd von Jutrczenka / picture alliance
When Friedrich Merz started his political offensive in the Sauerland, he was 38 years old.
It is October 16, 1994, the day of the federal election.
Sure, Merz had already sat in the European Parliament for a few years.
But only then does his career really take off.
Merz got 54.3 percent of the first votes in the North Rhine-Westphalian Hochsauerlandkreis.
It was a triumphal procession to Bonn, where Helmut Kohl still ruled at the time.
Merz defends his constituency three times.
He is developing into one of the Union's leading financial experts and even becomes a parliamentary group leader.
It was all a long time ago.
But another federal election is due on September 26th.
For Merz, now 65, it could be the date of his big comeback - from the Sauerland to the center of power in the republic.
Once again.
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Friedrich Merz in 1998 as the new Union parliamentary group leader alongside former Chancellor Helmut Kohl
Photo: Tim_Brakemeier / picture-alliance / dpa
Much indicates that Merz is working on exactly that: on a comeback that many no longer believed possible after all the slips and failures of recent years.
Merz wanted to become CDU boss twice, and twice he had to admit defeat.
First Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, then in January Armin Laschet.
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