The Parliament chosen by the German conservative leader Friedrich Merz was elected Chancellor by Parliament in a second round of voting after a humiliating and unprecedented defeat in the first attempt, making his coalition government have a weak start.
Merz, 69, who took his conservatives to a federal election victory in February and has signed a coalition agreement with the social democrats of the central left (SPD), won 325 votes, nine more than necessary for an absolute majority, in the secret vote.
He had assured only 310 votes in the first voting round, which means that at least 18 coalition legislators could not support it.
After the vote, he went to the nearby Bellevue Palace to be formally nominated by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Later, he will return to the historic Reichstag building in the heart of Berlin to provide the oath to become the tenth chancellor of Germany since the end of World War II.
Merz is under strong pressure to show German leadership after the implosion last November of the three -road coalition of the Scholz outgoing chamber Scholz left a political vacuum in the heart of Europe, even when he faced a myriad of crisis.
“People have been asking Germany to lead for a long time, and there is no more space not to pay attention to that call,” Sudha David-Wilp said of the German Marshall background of the United States.
“Everything that had been submitting to postwar Germany in the last eight decades is no longer the case, whether open markets and free trade, be it the presence of the United States security in Europe.”
A global commercial war caused by import tariffs of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, threatens a third year of recession in the largest economy in Europe, which has already had to deal with the end of the cheap Russian gas since the large -scale invasion of Ukraine of Russia in Ukraine in 202 and the growing rivalry of China.
Meanwhile, Trump has threatened not to go to the aid of the NATO alliance, which caused even transatlantist Merz questioning the reliability of the United States as an ally of superior security and urges Europe to improve his ability to defend himself.
The German coalition agreement has mapped plans to relive growth, such as reducing a corporate tax and reducing energy prices. It also promises strong support for Ukraine and a higher military expense.
Shameful beginning
But Merz’s failure to win the support for his Foreign Ministry in the first attempt is the first for postwar Germany and a shame for a man who has promised to restore German leadership on the world stage.
“All of Europe sought in Berlin today in the hope that Germany will be reaffirmed as an anchor of stability and a proeuropea power,” said Jana Puglierin, head of the Berlin office of the European Council of Foreign Relations.
“That hope has vanished. With consequences far beyond our borders.”
The party experts said Monday that a majority would quickly ensure despite the complaints in both parties of the coalition about cabinet nominations, political commitments and a large package of loans pushed by the old Parliament in its last days.
“This shows that the coalition is not united, which could weaken its ability to seek policies,” said Holger Schmieding, Berenberg chief economist in London.
The only winner of Tuesday’s debacle is the alternative of extreme right and anti-establishment for Germany, which was second in February and has overcome some recent surveys, said Forsa Manfred Guellner’s pollster.
“Confidence in political institutions is being more damaged,” he said.
The two parties of the coalition have lost support from their already gloomy actions in February, especially conservatives, due in part to frustration with Merz’s decision to loosen the limits of loans, despite the promises of the fiscal righteous campaign.
“The failed vote is clearly a sign that not all of the CDU agree with the change of fiscal sense,” said Carsten Brzeski, chief of Macro’s research macro.
The abrasive and erratic style of Merz, who has never held the position of the Government, has not managed to convince some that it is foreign minister.
“The relationship between the parties will be damaged severely due to this and [it will] Exacerbate conflicts that are already bubbling under the surface, “said Philipp Koeker, a political scientist at Hanover University.
