Look I’m not trying to argue that Merz is a paragon of virtue. What I’m arguing is that

a) a lot of things are way more important to him than the things you are worried about and

b) there’s checks on his behaviour, from inside the conservative population. They know who did and who did not murder Lübcke, who agitated against him (among others, Steinbach) which is why right now nobody, literally nobody, is backing Merz as Lübcke’s widow is ripping into him for his “where was Antifa” comment: The Antifa was there, it was Merz and the other paleoconservative CDU people who weren’t. This idea that he can do what he wants is falling for the conservative’s apparent unity while in reality it’s a cesspit of backroom deals and backstabbing.

I also understand it. I don’t support it, in fact I oppose it, but I do understand it.

You’re splitting hairs here. This is clearly not the kind of understanding that Merz meant. During one of the chancelor duels/quadrels, there even was a question related to either the topic of gay marriage or to trans acceptance and Merz couldn’t for the life of him give an answer that would affirm the right of gay/trans people as normal humans. Whereas Scholz right next to him easily could which brings us to the next point…

Yeah but by that measure we have to declare the whole of the SPD fascist. Even worse, thinking about nothing but civil liberties you suddenly start to respect the FDP so I’d advise against that, always keep all the struggles in mind or they trick you.

… in fact, FDP hasn’t done good on that topic. SPD and Greens did way better at fighting for civil liberties than FDP which has gone all out in its embrace of economic liberalism along with fairly conservative social policies. There’s a reason why abortions are still a criminal offence in Germany and lots of other things, and that reason is FDP and Marco Buschmann.