IT IS A calm and confident Friedrich Merz who greets The Economist on February 7th at a luxury golf resort in Stromberg, a little town in Germany’s Rhineland where he will campaign later in the day. Two weeks ago controversy exploded around the leader of the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), after he relied on the hard-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) to get a non-binding motion urging restrictions on migration through parliament. Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in protest. But it does not appear to have fazed the man hoping to become Germany’s chancellor after the election on February 23rd. Getting migration and the economy right are essential, he tells us, if the AfD is to be kept out of power.