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German
parliament elects Merz as chancellor in second round of voting
New leader
secures 325 votes after humiliating loss in first round inflicted by 18 unnamed
coalition rebels
Deborah Cole
in Berlin
Tue 6 May
2025 15.53 BST
The German
parliament has formally elected Friedrich Merz as the country’s 10th chancellor
since the second world war, after a humiliating loss in the first round of
voting that raised troubling doubts about the stability of the next coalition
government.
Merz secured
325 votes in the second round, just above the necessary 316. Earlier in the day
18 unnamed rebels from the newly formed alliance between his conservatives and
the Social Democrats had voted to deprive him of the required majority in the
secret ballot.
“Madam
speaker, thank you for the trust,” a visibly relieved Merz told the Bundestag
president, Julia Klöckner, after she announced the result. “I accept the
election.”
Commentators
had called the earlier shock act of political sabotage a “complete catastrophe”
for Merz and “a punch to the stomach”. The 69-year-old leads the centre-right
CDU/CSU bloc, which won February’s snap election with a disappointing 28.6%.
The Social
Democrats (SPD), now junior partners in government, turned in their worst
performance in more than a century in the election, with just over 16%.
Together
they have only a slim majority to pass a reform agenda in the Bundestag, where
the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party now forms the biggest
opposition bloc.
A failure by
Merz to win in the second round would have plunged Europe’s top economy into
political turmoil, triggering an open-ended leadership battle or new elections
in which the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin AfD would have been expected to do
well, or even win outright.
Nevertheless,
the shaky start to Merz’s four-year term points to potential divisions in the
coalition’s ranks just as he is facing an already staggering in-tray of
domestic and foreign policy challenges unseen since national reunification 35
years ago.
The incoming
government will have to revive the flatlining economy and fend off the far
right while maintaining support for Ukraine against the backdrop of fresh
uncertainty in the transatlantic relationship under Donald Trump.
The
Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, congratulated Merz on X, saying that
Kyiv hopes “Germany will grow even stronger and that we’ll see more German
leadership in European and transatlantic affairs”.
“This is
especially important with the future of Europe at stake – and it will depend on
our unity,” he said.
Merz, a
corporate lawyer who made a fortune in the private sector but has never led a
state government or a ministry, promised “strong, well-planned and dependable
governance … in times of profound change, of profound upheaval” as he signed
the coalition pact on Monday.
“That is why
we know that it is our historic obligation to lead this coalition to success,”
he said, noting that partners keenly awaited a return of German engagement with
Europe.
The AfD
co-leader Alice Weidel gleefully welcomed the earlier debacle, posting on X
that his failure to win a majority in the first round “shows what a weak
foundation the small coalition is built on”.
After his
swearing-in before parliament about seven hours behind schedule, Merz presented
his cabinet to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace in central
Berlin. He will later go to the chancellery for the official handover from his
predecessor, Olaf Scholz.
Merz will
travel to Paris and Warsaw on Wednesday, signalling a return to German
engagement with the EU after six months of political limbo since Scholz’s
government collapsed in acrimony.
On Thursday,
Merz is due to preside over ceremonies in Berlin marking the 80th anniversary
of the end of the second world war in Europe before heading to Brussels on
Friday to meet EU and Nato leaders.
The European
Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, a member of Merz’s CDU, called
him “a proven friend and expert on Europe” on Tuesday, promising to “work
together for a strong and more competitive Europe”.
Despite
leading his party to victory in February, Merz has a deep popularity deficit
among Germans, who dislike his often brash style and mercurial temperament.
A poll last
week for the public broadcaster ZDF showed that only 38% supported him as
chancellor while 56% said he was the wrong person for the job. Merz is
particularly disliked by Social Democrats, with 62% rejecting him, in a gloomy
foreshadowing of Tuesday’s disaster.
The
black-red coalition, named for the parties’ colours, had stronger backing than
Merz himself at 48%, while 37% oppose the alliance. Yet nearly one in two
Germans do not think the team has what it takes to solve the country’s most
pressing problems.
The outgoing
government slashed its economic growth forecast to zero for this year, citing
the impact of Trump’s erratic trade policies after two years of recession.
Before even
taking office, Merz in March engineered a reform of the “debt brake” which
curbs public spending to unleash a “bazooka” package of investment in Germany’s
creaking infrastructure and the military, amid fears about Trump’s commitment
to Nato and Ukraine’s defence against the Russian onslaught.
Germany is
the second biggest national supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the US.
However, the
bold budget move proved highly unpopular with fiscal hawks in the CDU/CSU –
possibly a source of the dissent on display in Tuesday’s vote.
Ursula
Münch, director of the Academy for Political Education thinktank, called Merz’s
unfortunate start only a “mid-level catastrophe”, saying it could serve to
focus minds within the coalition that its success “is truly up to each of
them”.
But she
warned that if the teams fail to pull themselves together, “mistrust could
spread in both parliamentary groups” with Merz left to doubt “before every
important vote whether he actually has a majority”. “The AfD will of course try
to exploit that” by sowing discord, she said.
Merz had for
decades harboured an ambition to become chancellor but was long thwarted by his
bitter rival Angela Merkel, who watched the day’s drama from the VIP gallery of
the Bundestag.
Since
assuming the leadership of their CDU in 2022, he has steered the party to the
right of her more moderate course, particularly on border policy.
Meanwhile
the AfD has capitalised on a public backlash against migration, coming second
in the February election. Two recent polls have shown it overtaking Merz’s
CDU/CSU in support as it profits from the power vacuum in Berlin.
Last week,
the BfV domestic intelligence agency designated it a “confirmed rightwing
extremist” force, stoking long-running calls for an initiative to ban the party
outright. Merz’s bid to claw back support from the AfD is seen as one of the
biggest challenges facing him this term.
Although he
ground out a win, Merz will now engage in the battle in a weaker position than
initially presumed, while Germany seeks to restore its vaunted reputation for
predictability.
“Germany is
always seen as a source of super-stability in Europe, even worldwide,” the
political scientist Wolfgang Schröder told the rolling news channel n-tv. “This
bumpy patch on the way to forming a government clearly shows that’s not
necessarily the case. You could call it Germany becoming normal.”
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