Germany experienced a significant political turmoil today when Friedrich Merz’s attempt to become the nation’s 10th chancellor unexpectedly faltered in the initial round of voting in parliament, losing by a mere six votes.
Merz, the conservative leader, was expected to win the vote on Tuesday.
In an unprecedented event in the history of the Federal Republic, the chancellor candidate stumbled at the onset, leading to demands for his resignation and suggestions for the country to organize new elections barely three months after the previous ones.
Requiring a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a confidential ballot, Merz could only secure 310, causing his family to exit the public gallery right after the outcome.
Before Merz, no chancellor in postwar history had failed to secure parliament’s backing at the first attempt.
Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the AfD, was seen smiling in response to the surprising result.
Her far-right party, which came second in February’s election, have sued Germany’s domestic inelligence service after being designated as a ‘right wing extremist’ organisation last week.
Weidel called on him to ‘resign immediately’, adding: ‘Merz should step aside and the way should be cleared for a general election.
‘This is of course a historic setback. The man is so damaged and this so-called governing coalition has been a mess from the start.’
Bernd Baumann, the AfD’s parliamentary group leader, said: ‘Merz is damaged, whatever else happens in future.’
Merz has been under pressure in recent weeks, having scrambled to put together a coalition with the centre-left Social Democratic Party, which now holds a slim majority in the Bundestag.
As well as stemming the electoral rise of the AfD, the Christian Democratic Union leader was also facing questions over curbing illegal migration and his approach to backing Ukraine against the Russian invasion.
His party are now neck-and-neck in the polls with the AfD, having held a comfortable lead earlier in the year and won 58 more seats in the election.
The lower house of parliament – called the Bundestag – now has 14 days to elect a candidate with an absolute majority, according to German law.
If that also fails, the constitution allows for the president to appoint the candidate who wins the most votes as chancellor, or to dissolve the Bundestag and hold a new national election.
The result represents a significant blow to the Christian Democrat leader, who won the most seats in Germany’s Federal Election in February.
His party signed a coalition deal with the centre-left SPD yesterday, with 328 seats between the two parties indicating that Merz had enough support to win today’s vote.
But it appears 18 MPs who had been expected to back him dissented, leading to a humiliating defeat for the conservative leader.
In the end, just 310 backed Merz, with 307 voting against.
Three lawmakers abstained, with one invalid ballot, while nine MPs were absent.
The parliamentary vote is a secret ballot, meaning the votes of individual MPs will never be revealed.
The Bundestag will not hold a second vote later today, despite reports that Merz’s team was considering pushing for one.
It could, however, take place as early as Friday. Carsten Linnemann, the secretary-general of the Christian Democrats, called for a second vote as soon as possible.
‘The world is in turmoil. Europe needs a strong Germany’, he said.
‘We can’t wait for days now, we need clarity quickly.’
The parties will now regroup to discuss the next steps but it was not immediately clear how long the process could take. Outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz will remain in a caretaker role until the eventual outcome is reached.
The vote, which came on the eve of the 80th anniversary of Germany’s unconditional surrender in World War II, was largely seen as a formality to confirm Merz as Chancellor.
Johann Wadepuhl, the designated next foreign minister, said he was still confident that Merz would ultimately prevail.
‘It is an annoying process, but in a parliamentary democracy, in a liberal country, this is unfortunately one of the scenarios that you have to be prepared for,’ he told reporters today.
He said the failure to be voted in was an ‘obstacle but not a catastrophe’.
The CDU leader was meant to travel to both Paris and Warsaw on Wednesday if he had been successful.
He was already facing questions over the AfD’s status as a legal political entity after it was classified as a ‘right wing extremist’ organisation by the German domestic intelligence service.
Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution described the party as a threat to the country’s democratic order, saying it ‘disregards human dignity’ – in particular by what it called ‘ongoing agitation’ against refugees and migrants.
Mainstream German political parties refuse to work with it, citing the so-called ‘firewall’ they’ve upheld against cooperating with far-right parties since the end of the war.
But senior figures in the White House, including Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vice President JD Vance, criticised the move and called on them to undo the classification.
Merz has not commented publicly on the intelligence service’s decision.
The AfD, now subject to broader surveillance, was shaping up to be a political thorn in Merz’s side.
Following the elections, the conservative leader said the fact that AfD doubled its vote share in percentage terms is a ‘real warning bell, a real alarm bell for the political parties of the centre in Germany to come up with shared solutions’.
The AfD is likely to hold his feet to the fire over major issues affecting German politics, including migration, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and whether Merz gives too much ground to the SPD.
Merz’s coalition has pledged to spur economic growth, take a tougher approach to migration and catch up on long-neglected modernisation.
