Conservative Merz elected head of government in Germany in second parliamentary vote
For the first time in the history of the current German political system, a second vote was needed to elect the chancellor, which could be a sign of weakness in the future government.
Friedrich Merz (CDU, center), party chairman and chancellor.
Conservative Friedrich Merz was elected German chancellor on Tuesday by MPs, having to go through two rounds of voting, signaling the difficulties awaiting him in power at a crucial time for his country.
In an unprecedented scenario in Germany, it took a second round of voting in the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Party (CDU) president to finally be elected head of government by the skin of its teeth.
Merz, 69, who won a hard-fought early parliamentary election in late February, won 325 votes out of a total of 630 deputies in a second ballot held in the afternoon and necessitated by the failure of the morning's first round, which caused astonishment.
Although the election of Friedrich Merz by secret ballot appeared to be a mere formality following the conclusion of a majority coalition agreement with the Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, he initially failed to reach the necessary threshold.
Never before in the history of postwar Germany had a chancellor candidate met such a fate. In the German parliamentary system, it is the members of parliament who elect the head of government.
A government that starts with a misstep
Because of this obstacle in the first ballot, Friedrich Merz will begin his four-year term slightly weakened, even though he was supposed to bring stability after the national political crisis triggered by the fall of the Scholz government in November. This setback immediately undermines his promises to revive the country, mired in an economic crisis, and Europe.
Already unpopular with the public, he is being questioned within his own conservative ranks for backtracking on an election promise, as he recently relaxed the country's very strict budget spending rules.
The chancellor did so in order to finance a vast program of rearmament in the country in the face of the Russian threat and the U.S. military withdrawal from the European continent, as well as modernizing the country to the tune of several hundred billion euros.
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