Source: CNN World
Updated 10:25 AM EDT, Tue May 6, 2025
Read more: https://www.cnn.com/2025/05/06/europe/m ... ament-intlCNN — Germany’s Friedrich Merz has won a parliamentary vote to become chancellor at the second attempt, hours after an unprecedented defeat signaled deep discontent within his coalition. In a hastily organized session on Tuesday afternoon, 325 lawmakers voted to approve his ascension — more than the 316 he required.
Merz, who won an election in February and unveiled a ruling coalition last month, had fallen six votes short earlier in the day, a stunning setback that marked another twist in a tortuous period of uncertainty for the country.
He is now set to formally become chancellor after being approved by the German President. But his tenure will start on unstable footing: Tuesday’s votes revealed reluctance inside his coalition, and gave the insurgent far-right AfD party a new opportunity to ruffle the political establishment.
Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party won an election in February, but failed to pick up enough seats to govern outright – an outcome that is commonplace in Germany’s diverse political environment. He last month announced he would form a coalition with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), a rare fusing of Germany’s two establishment groups that ensured the AfD – which came second in the February poll – would remain locked out of power. It extended the so-called “firewall,” a blockade against far-right groups that German politicians have kept in place since after World War II, but which has become increasingly tenuous.
