Friedrich Merz secured Germany’s chancellorship Tuesday after overcoming an initial parliamentary defeat that had thrown his and Germany’s political future into question.
Merz, leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) fell six votes short of securing a majority in the Bundestag in the morning, making him the first chancellor candidate in postwar German history to lose a confirmation vote on the first ballot. After emergency negotiations and a hastily scheduled second round, he won 325 votes, narrowly clearing the 316-vote threshold.
“I appreciate your trust and accept the election,” Merz said after the second vote. At time of writing, he has yet to comment further.
Merz initial defeat rattled financial markets, with Germany’s DAX index dropping over 2% as uncertainty mounted over whether the country could quickly form a stable government. His CDU secured a plurality in February’s election and entered into a coalition with the left-wing Social Democratic Party (SDP), a pairing intended to deliver a working majority of 328 seats — but the first vote revealed unexpected dissent within the alliance.
The Bundestag’s secret ballot format masked the identity of the dissenters, though the vote tally suggested defections from either the Social Democrats or within Merz’s own CDU bloc. Merz will now have to rally a potentially divided coalition behind his pro-growth economic agenda amid instability to the east, rising defense costs and the continent-wide challenge of managing migration and energy security.
Alternative for Germany (AfD), a party to the right of CDU, seized on the morning’s result to slam the new government as inherently unstable.
“This government is beginning a very unstable manner — and it will remain unstable,” AfD floor leader Bernd Baumann warned ahead of the second vote, according to EuroWeekly News.
AfD surged to its strongest electoral showing yet in the February elections, becoming the second-most represented party in the Bundestag but remaining isolated. Merz’s CDU had ruled out any cooperation with the party — despite shared opposition to open-border migration policies — instead opting for an uneasy coalition with the left-leaning SPD.
Despite the rocky start, Merz assumed his new role, taking the oath of office Tuesday afternoon. He will to travel to Paris and Warsaw later this week in an effort to reassure European allies that Germany remains a pillar of continuity amid broader geopolitical turmoil, he said in an interview with Bild, a German tabloid.
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