Germany: Conservative leader Merz fails to be elected chancellor in first parliamentary vote

German conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed on Tuesday in his attempt to be elected chancellor in the first round of voting in parliament, much to everyone's surprise.

Merz had hoped to muster a majority of the 630 votes in the Bundestag, but only got the backing of 310, six short of what was needed, the chamber's speaker reported.

He will now undergo a second round, at the end of which, if he again fails to win a majority, a relative one would suffice for him to become chancellor of Europe's leading economic power.

The conservative candidate of the CDU party had, a priori, enough support from his party and from the Social Democrats of the SPD, with whom he agreed to govern in coalition, to obtain a majority.

But to everyone's great surprise, he fell short in this first vote, something unprecedented in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany since World War II.

Merz was the winner of the February 23 legislative elections, and is awaited with hope in a Europe disoriented by the Trump Administration's diplomatic policy.

Even before being appointed, Merz is already facing the anger of part of his conservative electorate, for recently relaxing the strict debt rules, in order to finance the rearmament and modernization of the country's infrastructure.

In the new Bundestag, conservatives and Social Democrats have a combined 328 seats.

But the head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) has not won all the expected support in the ranks of this party and the SPD, which on Monday signed their coalition government agreement.

If Merz finally wins the support of a relative majority of deputies, he will then be confirmed as the 10th chancellor of modern Germany by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who will receive him at Bellevue Palace.