after the change of government from helmut kohl to gerhard schröder in 1998, mertes joined the editorial team of the german weekly rheinischer merkur and remained the newspaper’s foreign editor and deputy editor-in-chief until the end of 2002. from 2003 to july 2006, he worked as an associate for the political consultancy “dimap consult” which he had co-founded with former colleagues. at the same time, he continued writing as a freelance author for “rheinischer merkur”, aufbau (until 2004) and project syndicate.