Monday Briefing: Conservatives near victory in Germany

February 24, 2025

	By Emmett Lindner

Good morning. We’re covering Germany’s election results and Israel’s deployment of tanks to the West Bank.

Plus, a pharaoh’s tomb was unearthed.

A man in a blue suit holds a microphone at a political event.

Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany’s Christian Democratic Union. Ina Fassbender/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Merz appeared poised to be Germany’s next leader

The conservative Christian Democrats appeared to be on the cusp of victory in Germany’s parliamentary elections yesterday, exit polls show. The country’s next chancellor will almost certainly be Friedrich Merz, a businessman who has promised to crack down on migrants, and slash taxes and business regulations in a bid to kick-start economic growth.

Early exit polls indicated that the hard-right Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, was in second place with 19.5 percent of the vote, a result that was lower than predicted. With a voter participation of 83.5 percent, the election appears to have had the highest turnout since reunification 35 years ago.

President Trump was a late-arriving issue in the campaign. Merz vowed to bring stronger leadership in Europe at a moment when Trump had sowed anxiety on the continent by scrambling traditional alliances and embracing Russia. At a round-table debate yesterday, Merz slammed what he called “interference from Washington” in the election by Elon Musk and Vice President JD Vance.

What’s next: If the exit polls are correct, Merz is unlikely to have the easy option of forming a coalition with the second-place finisher. Like other party leaders, he has promised never to partner with the AfD, parts of which are classified as extremist by German intelligence.

Meet Merz: The leader of the Christian Democratic Union earned his fortune working in the private sector before returning to politics at 63.

Immigration: A series of seemingly unrelated killings carried out last year by immigrants changed the debate ahead of the snap parliamentary election, shifting the focus away from what had been an economy-themed campaign.

An Israeli tank on a road heading into a refugee camp as people watch from the side.

Israeli tanks entered the Jenin camp in the occupied West Bank on Sunday. Jaafar Ashtiyeh/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Israel deployed tanks to the West Bank

Israel said yesterday that it was expanding operations against armed Palestinian groups in the occupied West Bank and had deployed tanks in the territory’s north for the first time in two decades.

The country’s defense minister, Israel Katz, said that tens of thousands of Palestinian residents who had been displaced by Israeli military actions in several West Bank cities would not be allowed to return to their homes. The Palestinian Authority’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a statement saying that it considered Katz’s statements and Israel’s actions to be “a dangerous escalation.”

Context: The tank deployment came after bombs exploded on three buses in Tel Aviv last week. The police said the devices resembled those made in the West Bank. Nobody was killed or injured in the blasts.

Cease-fire: Israel and Hamas yesterday accused each other of violating the Gaza truce after Israel delayed the release of Palestinian prisoners.

Lebanon: Hezbollah put on a show of strength yesterday with an elaborate funeral for its assassinated leader. The militant group hoped the event would revive its battered image.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine in front of a gold-trimmed panel.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Sergei Supinsky/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Zelensky said he’d step down if Ukraine could join NATO

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said yesterday that he was willing to step down if it meant peace in Ukraine. He went so far as to say that he’d trade his departure for NATO membership for Ukraine — a highly unlikely scenario for several reasons. It was not immediately clear whether he had seriously considered stepping down or he was responding to the latest jabs from President Trump and Moscow.

Zelensky continued to push back against Trump’s insistence that he sign a minerals deal that Ukraine says is unpalatable. And he said that today over 30 countries would meet in a kind of coalition of support for Ukraine’s war effort.

Kneeling in the snow: For a Ukrainian village of only 400 people, a single battlefield casualty is a significant loss felt by the entire community.

More on Trump

Condoms for Gaza? Ukraine started the war with Russia? Trump’s manipulations of the truth are laying the groundwork for radical change as he reshapes America.
The F.B.I. director, Kash Patel, the director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, and others told staff to ignore Elon Musk’s demand that federal employees summarize their accomplishments.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended Trump’s firing of the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s top military officer, arguing that he was “not the right man for the moment.”
Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has criticized security agencies for eroding privacy and civil liberties.
She risked her life when she converted to Christianity in Iran. When she fled the country, she ran right into Trump’s deportation policy.
Track Trump’s actions since he took office.

MORE TOP NEWS

A person can be seen walking in the dirt outside a damaged building.

A damaged building in Wad Madani, Sudan. Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Sudan: The Rapid Support Forces, the group fighting Sudan’s military, signed a political charter with its allies that aimed to establish a parallel government.
France: A doctor was accused of raping or sexually assaulting 299 people, mostly patients who were children, in the country’s largest-ever pedophilia case.
Germany: The suspect in the stabbing of a tourist at Berlin’s Holocaust memorial on Friday may have been planning for weeks to kill Jewish people, according to the authorities.
Vatican: Pope Francis is suffering from “initial, mild kidney failure” in addition to the serious respiratory illness for which he has been in critical condition, church officials said.
Disease: Outbreaks of measles in parts of Texas and New Mexico have sickened nearly 100 people, according to state health officials. They said cases were expected to rise.

Film: The Norwegian drama “Dreams (Sex Love)” won the top prize at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Sports

Soccer players in red uniforms celebrate as soccer players in blue uniforms walk in the opposite direction.

Alex Pantling/Getty Images

Soccer: Liverpool extended their lead atop the Premier League table to 11 points with a comfortable 2-0 win over Manchester City.
Formula 1: Fans’ booing of Max Verstappen and Christian Horner has been condemned by the sport’s governing body.
Basketball: Watching Kevin Durant’s pregame ritual is like watching prime Tiger Woods on the driving range. Here’s why.

MORNING READ

Three Astroforge workers in hairnets and blue gloves give a thumbs up to the camera as they pose next to a small spacecraft in a large white facility.

AstroForge personnel during final testing. Astroforge

A decade after the dream of mining asteroids in deep space crashed and burned, a private company is about to try again. This week, AstroForge plans to heave an oven-size spacecraft at an asteroid, hoping to kick off a rare-metal industry that could mean huge wealth for Earth. Success, though, is uncertain.

Lives lived: Carlos Diegues, a film director who celebrated Brazil and helped to forge a new path for cinema in his country, died at 84.

CONVERSATION STARTERS

Beyond labels: Tate Modern in London is paying homage to Leigh Bowery, the indefinable performer whom Boy George once described as “modern art on legs.”
It takes a village: A writer bought a house, looking for a refuge. What she really needed was a community.
Waiting till after hell: Our critic A.O. Scott marvels at the power and paradox of a sonnet by Gwendolyn Brooks that is “at war with itself.”

We hope you’ve enjoyed this newsletter, which is made possible through subscriber support. Subscribe to The New York Times .

ARTS AND IDEAS

A tunnel of rubble and stone leads up to daylight.

The entrance to King Thutmose II’s tomb. Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities, via Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

A pharoah’s tomb was unearthed

Archaeologists have found a pharaoh’s tomb near the Valley of the Kings, in what Egyptian officials called the first excavation of a royal tomb since Tutankhamen’s over a century ago. The tomb belonged to Thutmose II, who is believed to have reigned around 1480 B.C.

The burial chamber is thought to have been built by his wife, Hatshepsut, who reigned after his death. Though the tomb was not filled with riches as Tutankhamen’s was, it contained clues — like alabaster jars and fragments of the royal netherworld book — that could offer insight into Egypt’s cosmopolitan 18th dynasty. Read more here.

RECOMMENDATIONS

A German pancake is shown in a baking pan topped with berries and powdered sugar.

Christopher Testani for The New York Times

Cook: Whether you call it a German pancake or a Dutch baby, you should make one for breakfast.

Train: These movements can help you keep your balance as you age. They’re simple, and don’t need any special equipment.

Read: The mystery writer S.A. Cosby made a list of his favorite tales of the human monsters who wait for us in the dark.

Travel: Here are our tips for women traveling alone.

Play: Spelling Bee, the Mini Crossword, Wordle and Sudoku. Find all our games here.

That’s it for today. See you tomorrow. — Emmett

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