The German parliament has formally elected Friedrich Merz as the country’s 10th chancellor since the second world war, after a humiliating loss in the first round of voting that raised troubling doubts about the stability of the next coalition government.
Merz secured 325 votes in the second round, just above the necessary 316. Earlier in the day 18 unnamed rebels from the newly formed alliance between his conservatives and the Social Democrats had voted to deprive him of the required majority in the secret ballot.
“Madam speaker, thank you for the trust,” a visibly relieved Merz told the Bundestag president, Julia Klöckner, after she announced the result. “I accept the election.”
Commentators had called the earlier shock act of political sabotage a “complete catastrophe” for Merz and “a punch to the stomach”. The 69-year-old leads the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc, which won February’s snap election with a disappointing 28.6%.
The Social Democrats (SPD), now junior partners in government, turned in their worst performance in more than a century in the election, with just over 16%.
Together they have only a slim majority to pass a reform agenda in the Bundestag, where the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party now forms the biggest opposition bloc.
A failure by Merz to win in the second round would have plunged Europe’s top economy into political turmoil, triggering an open-ended leadership battle or new elections in which the anti-immigration, pro-Kremlin AfD would have been expected to do well, or even win outright.
Nevertheless, the shaky start to Merz’s four-year term points to potential divisions in the coalition’s ranks just as he is facing an already staggering in-tray of domestic and foreign policy challenges unseen since national reunification 35 years ago.
The incoming government will have to revive the flatlining economy and fend off the far right while maintaining support for Ukraine against the backdrop of fresh uncertainty in the transatlantic relationship under Donald Trump.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, congratulated Merz on X, saying that Kyiv hopes “Germany will grow even stronger and that we’ll see more German leadership in European and transatlantic affairs”.
“This is especially important with the future of Europe at stake – and it will depend on our unity,” he said.
Merz, a corporate lawyer who made a fortune in the private sector but has never led a state government or a ministry, promised “strong, well-planned and dependable governance … in times of profound change, of profound upheaval” as he signed the coalition pact on Monday.
“That is why we know that it is our historic obligation to lead this coalition to success,” he said, noting that partners keenly awaited a return of German engagement with Europe.
The AfD co-leader Alice Weidel gleefully welcomed the earlier debacle, posting on X that his failure to win a majority in the first round “shows what a weak foundation the small coalition is built on”.
After his swearing-in before parliament about seven hours behind schedule, Merz presented his cabinet to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier at Bellevue Palace in central Berlin. He will later go to the chancellery for the official handover from his predecessor, Olaf Scholz.
Merz will travel to Paris and Warsaw on Wednesday, signalling a return to German engagement with the EU after six months of political limbo since Scholz’s government collapsed in acrimony.
On Thursday, Merz is due to preside over ceremonies in Berlin marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe before heading to Brussels on Friday to meet EU and Nato leaders.
The European Commission’s president, Ursula von der Leyen, a member of Merz’s CDU, called him “a proven friend and expert on Europe” on Tuesday, promising to “work together for a strong and more competitive Europe”.
Despite leading his party to victory in February, Merz has a deep popularity deficit among Germans, who dislike his often brash style and mercurial temperament.
A poll last week for the public broadcaster ZDF showed that only 38% supported him as chancellor while 56% said he was the wrong person for the job. Merz is particularly disliked by Social Democrats, with 62% rejecting him, in a gloomy foreshadowing of Tuesday’s disaster.
The black-red coalition, named for the parties’ colours, had stronger backing than Merz himself at 48%, while 37% oppose the alliance. Yet nearly one in two Germans do not think the team has what it takes to solve the country’s most pressing problems.
The outgoing government slashed its economic growth forecast to zero for this year, citing the impact of Trump’s erratic trade policies after two years of recession.
Before even taking office, Merz in March engineered a reform of the “debt brake” which curbs public spending to unleash a “bazooka” package of investment in Germany’s creaking infrastructure and the military, amid fears about Trump’s commitment to Nato and Ukraine’s defence against the Russian onslaught.
Germany is the second biggest national supplier of military aid to Ukraine after the US.
However, the bold budget move proved highly unpopular with fiscal hawks in the CDU/CSU – possibly a source of the dissent on display in Tuesday’s vote.
Ursula Münch, director of the Academy for Political Education thinktank, called Merz’s unfortunate start only a “mid-level catastrophe”, saying it could serve to focus minds within the coalition that its success “is truly up to each of them”.
But she warned that if the teams fail to pull themselves together, “mistrust could spread in both parliamentary groups” with Merz left to doubt “before every important vote whether he actually has a majority”. “The AfD will of course try to exploit that” by sowing discord, she said.
Merz had for decades harboured an ambition to become chancellor but was long thwarted by his bitter rival Angela Merkel, who watched the day’s drama from the VIP gallery of the Bundestag.
Since assuming the leadership of their CDU in 2022, he has steered the party to the right of her more moderate course, particularly on border policy.
Meanwhile the AfD has capitalised on a public backlash against migration, coming second in the February election. Two recent polls have shown it overtaking Merz’s CDU/CSU in support as it profits from the power vacuum in Berlin.
Last week, the BfV domestic intelligence agency designated it a “confirmed rightwing extremist” force, stoking long-running calls for an initiative to ban the party outright. Merz’s bid to claw back support from the AfD is seen as one of the biggest challenges facing him this term.
Although he ground out a win, Merz will now engage in the battle in a weaker position than initially presumed, while Germany seeks to restore its vaunted reputation for predictability.
“Germany is always seen as a source of super-stability in Europe, even worldwide,” the political scientist Wolfgang Schröder told the rolling news channel n-tv. “This bumpy patch on the way to forming a government clearly shows that’s not necessarily the case. You could call it Germany becoming normal.”
