He was just off the autobahn, beaming at a rush-hour crowd, and Friedrich Merz’s mind had steered to speedometers.
“If you’ve recently bought a new car, have you noticed what kind of automatic systems it’s equipped with now?” the man in the driver’s seat to be Germany’s next chancellor asked on Friday afternoon. “If you drive two kilometers per hour too fast, the thing starts beeping.”
Those beeps are the product of a European Union regulation. For Mr. Merz, they were a timely and tidy example of the government intrusions that he blames for stymying the German economy and frustrating its citizens.
They were also a handy segue into the issues Mr. Merz hopes to lounge in, like a nice leather captain’s chair, over the final stretch before Germany’s parliamentary elections on Feb. 23.
Germany’s Would-Be Chancellor Tries to Get Back on Cruise Control
