On Tuesday afternoon, Friedrich Merz managed to secure a majority to become Germany’s new chancellor. He had failed to do so in a vote earlier in the day.
In the second round of voting, Merz (CDU-CSU) received 325 out of 360 votes. The result of the first ballot in the Bundestag this morning was 310 for and 307 against.
This is the first time in Germany’s post-war history that a chancellor has not been elected in a single ballot. It is a serious setback and a false start for the new coalition between his CDU/CSU and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).
