Germany Has a Chancellor, Despite Historic Stumble

UPDATE May 6, 2025 9:30 AM CDT

Friedrich Merz became the new chancellor of Germany on Tuesday, as expected. It just took longer than thought. Merz secured enough votes in the second round of voting in parliament, hours after failing to do so on the first ballot, reports the AP. The first-round failure had never happened before in Germany. Merz needed 316 votes, and he received 325 in the second round. He got only 310 the first time.

May 6, 2025 7:00 AM CDT

In a big shocker in Germany's parliament on Tuesday, conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed to earn enough "yeas" in the first round of voting, hurling the nation's political landscape "into disarray," reports Reuters. The secret-ballot vote was 310-307 in favor of Merz, with nine abstentions, according to Bundestag President Julia Kloeckner. The AP notes that Merz needed a total of 316 votes out of 630, meaning he was six votes short of the absolute majority he needed to clinch the deal. Not since the end of World War II has a chancellor candidate in Germany failed to win on the first ballot.

Party insiders had expected a smooth ascension for Merz, who seemed "visibly shocked" he didn't get the votes he needed in the first round, per Reuters. Merz's center-right Christian Democratic Union, its sister party Christian Social Union, and the center-left Social Democrats had recently inked a coalition deal, as Merz's party had emerged victorious in February's election with 28.5% of the vote; the Social Democrats had won 16.4%, allowing the parties to merge to form a majority government. The vote tally showed cracks in these newly unified ranks, however, as Merz earned only 310 votes out of the 328 seats in his own coalition.

story continues below

"This is a significant negative," Holger Schmieding, chief economist at London's Berenberg, tells Reuters. "[Merz] is still likely to be elected, but this shows that the coalition is not united, which could weaken his ability to pursue policies." University of Hanover political scientist Philipp Koeker says the vote result "casts a dark shadow over the future of the coalition." Germany now has 14 days to elect either Merz or someone else, although most reporting suggests Merz will be the eventual winner. Stocks in Germany dipped at the news, with the vote "an ominous sign for Mr. Merz's agenda to revitalize growth in Europe's biggest economy," per the New York Times. (More Germany stories.)