Merz’s ‘urban air’ rhetoric: A calculated ploy or genuine belief?

Is Merz weaponizing fears of the city to reshape German politics? His ‘urban air’ narrative targets voters who reject extremism—but embrace its coded messages.

, and Administrator

2025 December 5 . 10:03 PM

1 min read

This image is clicked in the city. At the bottom, there is a road, on which there are cars. To the... — This image is clicked in the city. At the bottom, there is a road, on which there are cars. To the left and right, there are buildings and skyscrapers. At the top, there is a sky.

Merz’s ‘urban air’ rhetoric: A calculated ploy or genuine belief?

His framing of urban issues as a crisis requiring deportation has been called post-factual, ignoring reality. Instead, it plays into fears of decline, offering authoritarian solutions as salvation.

Merz’s vision of the city draws on deep-rooted conservative and far-right traditions. He portrays urban spaces as sites of alienation, interpreting that alienation through a racialised lens. His proposed fixes include stricter security measures and historical revisionism in public life.

The rhetoric targets voters who feel uneasy in cities but reject far-right labels. By appealing to a ‘concerned, Christian-leaning bourgeois majority’, he normalises ideas once confined to the AfD. This shift aligns with the far right’s narrative of decay and redemption, where salvation lies in an ethnically homogeneous society.

Critics see his approach as an attack on Germany’s post-migrant reality. His framing of ‘endangered women’ needing protection reinforces masculinist tropes, while his anti-urban stance risks pushing cultural policy toward greater oppression. The strategy blurs the line between calculated politics and unfiltered prejudice, embedding far-right themes in mainstream opposition discourse.

Merz’s remarks signal a broader shift in how urban issues are politicised. By linking city management to immigration and security, he moves the debate toward stricter controls. The result could reshape public policy, reinforcing exclusionary visions of German society.