Germany’s Friedrich Merz named chancellor after parliamentary setback
BERLIN – Friedrich Merz was elected chancellor by the German parliament Tuesday in a second round of voting, after failing to secure an absolute majority in an earlier round. His appointment ends six months of political deadlock in the country, but Merz’s initial defeat cast doubt on the stability of his governing coalition.
Merz, the leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, will be sworn in to office Tuesday evening.
In the initial round of voting, Merz had been expected to easily win enough votes in Germany’s lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, to be named chancellor, but he fell six votes short. It was the first time in Germany’s postwar history that a chancellor-designate did not win an absolute majority.
In the second round of voting after a day of confusion, Merz won election as chancellor, with 325 votes in the 630-seat chamber.
Because the balloting was secret, it was unknown who had withheld support from Merz in the first round and whether they were dissenters from his own conservative camp – made up of the Christian Democratic Union and its sister party, the Christian Social Union – or members of their junior coalition partner, the Social Democrats. Merz’s conservatives won Germany’s general election in February.
Television footage showed a stone-faced Merz leaving the parliament chamber. Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz was also seen exiting the floor, shaking his head in apparent disbelief.
Merz’s historic setback highlighted the precarious position of his coalition, with only a slim majority, as well as the growing political fragmentation in the German parliament. The parliament’s second-largest party is the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD. Mainstream parties in Germany have refused to cooperate with the AfD, as part of a post-World War II consensus in Germany to block the far right from being part of any government.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the AfD, said Merz’s initial defeat was a “good day for Germany” and called for fresh federal elections.
“Mr. Merz should resign immediately and clear the way for new elections,” she told reporters as lawmakers disappeared into back rooms to deliberate the next steps. Opinion polls show the AfD gaining popularity since February’s elections. Last week, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency classified the AfD as an “extremist” entity.
Merz will take office at a time of soaring global tensions, with ties between Europe and the United States fraying and Russia’s war in Ukraine entering its fourth year. Germany’s allies, from Paris to Warsaw, are looking to Berlin to anchor a reimagined European security strategy and act as a stabilizing force, as well as help end the war in Ukraine.
Merz, 69, a former corporate lawyer and banker, also is facing daunting domestic challenges, including a stagnating economy and the rise of the far right.
A longtime rival of former chancellor Angela Merkel, Merz took a hiatus from politics shortly after a bitter party leadership contest in the early 2000s. Since taking the reins of the Christian Democratic Union in 2022, he has shifted the conservatives away from Merkel’s more centrist policies. Despite his party’s election win, he was seen as an unpopular leader, criticized on matters of both style and substance. His private planes and business background – he was the former head of the German branch of BlackRock, the U.S. fund manager – gave rise to accusations of being elitist.
His blunt style and controversial comments on migration have drawn backlash, especially after he pushed a motion calling for stricter immigration enforcement through parliament this year with the support of the far-right AfD.