Centre-right leader Friedrich Merz is the new Chancellor of Germany on the second time of trying, ten weeks after an inconclusive national election that left Merz negotiating for a coalition with the defeated left-wing.
History was made on Tuesday in Berlin after it took two attempts to get through just the formality of electing the head of the incoming governing coalition as Chancellor — Germany’s Prime Minister analogue — the first having stumbled for the want of just six votes. Although the German constitution provides for such an outcome, this is the first time it has ever happened, and augers ill for the stability of this incoming government if it struggles to even pass votes to establish itself, never mind pass votes for laws on what may be contentious issues in the future.
After a day of Bundestag drama, Christian Democrat (CDU, centre-right globalist) Merz was finally elected with a majority of just nine votes in a vote of 620 members, allowing him to be formally appointed Chancellor by the Federal President.
‘Chaos’: Bundestag Fails to Elect New Chancellor for First Time in History, AfD Call for Fresh National Electionshttps://t.co/Sk7sOz6d0h
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Markets reacted negatively to the stumble this morning, taking the failure of the government to transact even its most basic business smoothly as a strong signal of future instability to come.
Political leaders most interested in Germany reacted quickly to the news that Merz had been appointed Chancellor, including Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky who is hoping to receive more advanced missile systems from Germany, which had been blocked by the previous administration. Also responding was former German defence minister and Angela Merkel protege, now-European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen who said she looked forward to “close cooperation” from the pro-EU Merz.
Germany had not been due to vote in national elections until later this year, but after the unstable former left-wing coalition collapsed in November 2024, snap elections were called in February. The governing parties were punished by voters, yet the left-wing Social Democrats managed to use its third-place finish to establish itself as kingmaker and return to government by the back door, being the minority partner in the new CDU coalition.
The sovereigntist-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) made history in that election themselves by finishing as the second-largest party, their best ever result, becoming the official opposition in the Bundestag. Despite the clear democratic expression of support for the party, they were declared “extremists” by the outgoing government last week, a political hand-grenade left for the new government to diffuse by the old administration.
Remarkably, there are even calls for the party to be banned, all in the name of protecting democracy.
