section_path: Early political career/Member of the Bundestag (1994–2009)
section_name: Member of the Bundestag (1994–2009)
paragraph_text: Member of the Bundestag (1994–2009)
  
  From the 1994 German elections, he served as member of the Bundestag for his constituency, the Hochsauerland. In his first term, he was a member of the Finance Committee.
  
  In October 1998 Merz became vice-chairman and in February 2000 Chairman of the CDU/ CSU parliamentary group (alongside Michael Glos), succeeding Wolfgang Schäuble. In this capacity, he was the opposition leader in the Bundestag during Chancellor Gerhard Schröder 's first term.
  
  Ahead of the 2002 elections, Edmund Stoiber included Merz in his shadow cabinet for the Christian Democrats' campaign to unseat incumbent Schröder as chancellor. During the campaign, Merz served as Stoiber's expert for financial markets and the national budget. After Stoiber's electoral defeat, Angela Merkel assumed the leadership of the parliamentary group; Merz again served as vice-chairman until 2004. From 2002 to 2004, he was also a member of the executive board of the CDU, again under the leadership of Merkel.
  
  In 2004, Merz gave a speech to local constituents criticising the "red" (Social Democratic) mayor of his hometown, Brilon, and called for the "red town hall" to be stormed. He noted that his grandfather, Josef Paul Sauvigny, had been mayor of Brilion. This statement drew criticism due to Sauvigny's role as a mayor under Nazi rule. While it is not known whether he was a formal member of the Nazi Party at the time (though he joined later), Sauvigny remained mayor after the Nazis seized power and repressed their political opponents. During his tenure, he praised the Nazi "national revolution" and renamed streets in his town after Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring.
  
  In 2005 he has been described by German media as a new member of the Andean Pact, a originally secret network of influential CDU men formed in 1979 by then members of Young Union during a trip to the South American Andes region. The Andean pact stood in opposition to Merkel, especially in the five years before she became chancellor in 2005, after she had become chairperson of the CDU. Years before his admission, Merz had already a "fundamental loyalty" to his peers in the Andean Pact. Between 2005 and 2009, Merz was a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs. In 2006, he was one of nine parliamentarians who filed a complaint at the Federal Constitutional Court against the disclosure of additional sources of income; the complaint was ultimately unsuccessful. By 2007, he announced he would not be running for political office in the 2009 elections.