Merz fails to be elected Germany’s chancellor in first parliament vote

Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has failed in his bid to become the country’s 10th chancellor, falling short by six votes in the first round of voting in parliament.

Merz, who had been widely expected to win the parliamentary vote, needed 316 votes in the secret ballot held on Tuesday, but he received only 310.On Monday, the CDU/CSU reached an agreement with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), which secured 16.4 percent in the elections after the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s government last year.

If the vote were to pass, the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition would have a slim majority, with just 328 seats in the Bundestag out of a total of 630.

Reporting from Berlin, Al Jazeera’s Dominic Kane said within the CDU/CSU and SPD blocs, 10 members failed to attend the vote, three abstained, and several voted against Merz “despite the official steer” of their parties.

It comes as the newly formed coalition had set ambitious goals, including stimulating economic growth, boosting defence spending, and tightening immigration policies in response to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which came second in the vote.‘Serious crisis’
Uli Brueckner, a professor of political science at Stanford University, based in Berlin, told Al Jazeera that the AfD will be “celebrating” the outcome of the vote.

“We see a lot of interference with fake news and manipulation from enemies of Western democracy and, surprisingly, also from the United States of America – in which the current administration currently supports the AfD,” he said.

Brueckner suggested that the US, Russia, and autocratic regimes may want to see instability in Germany.