The race to lead Germany is diverting through Switzerland, with a campaigning push in Davos set to showcase competing visions for how to revive Europe’s biggest economy.

Welcome to the Brussels Edition, Bloomberg’s daily briefing on what matters most in the heart of the European Union.

Germany's opposition leader has vowed to bar people from entering the country without proper papers and to step up deportations if he is elected as chancellor next month, as a knife attack by a rejected asylum-seeker spills over into an election campaign in which he is the front-runner.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German opposition leader Friedrich Merz, tipped to become the next chancellor, said on Thursday he wanted to win back the lost trust of key allies and ensure Berlin is more assertive on the global stage in a speech laying out his foreign policy plans.

Latest YouGov poll shows Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc commanding 28% of voter support, leading Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats by 9 percentage points - Anadolu Ajansı

After years in which Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been accused of treading lightly on European and world stages, conservative election

Ukraine must win the war against Russia, regain lost territory and be free to join military alliances, Friedrich Merz, favourite to become Germany's next chancellor, said Thursday.

Friedrich Merz, possible German Chancellor, wants permanent border checks after terror attacks by asylum seekers prompted CDU party leader to take action

Friedrich Merz, Germany's main opposition leader, plans stringent border controls if he becomes chancellor, aiming to tackle immigration issues after a fatal stabbing by an Afghan asylum seeker. His controversial stance,

Latest YouGov poll shows Friedrich Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc commanding 28% of voter support, leading Chancellor Scholz's Social Democrats by 9 percentage points - Anadolu Ajansı

BERLIN - Ukraine must win the war against Russia, regain lost territory and be free to join military alliances, Mr Friedrich Merz - favourite to become Germany’s next chancellor - said on Jan 23. Mr Merz said he wants peace in Ukraine but not “at the price of submission to an imperialist power” and stressed that “Ukraine must win the war”.

Merz, whose centre-right bloc currently tops the polls, is toughening his stance on migration ahead of federal elections next month. View on euronews