It took Friedrich Merz two tries, a parliamentary wobble, and a fair dose of political theatre, but the 69-year-old conservative finally secured the Bundestag’s blessing to become Germany’s next chancellor. One might have expected a smooth coronation for the man long seen as Angela Merkel’s ideological antithesis. Instead, the Bundestag resembled more a farce than a fortress of democracy, as Merz stumbled at the first hurdle and scraped through on the second.
In the initial vote—supposedly a formality—Merz failed to clinch the required majority, securing just 310 votes out of 630 MPs, despite his CDU/CSU-SDP-Green coalition controlling 328 seats. Cue political whiplash. After several hours of frantic backroom scheming and constitutional hair-splitting, a second vote was hastily arranged. Merz squeezed through with 325 votes this time—just nine more than the minimum required—hardly a thumping endorsement.
It was a historic embarrassment. Not since the ashes of the Second World War has a chancellor-designate flopped in their first parliamentary test. The handover from Olaf Scholz, far from a stately procession, began more as an episode of Political Survivor.
The rebels’ identity remains conveniently cloaked by the secret ballot, but conspiracy theories are already swirling faster than Berlin’s spring pollen. Was it leftist dissent? Conservative spite? Or perhaps MPs who simply nodded off mid-vote?
After being confirmed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Merz took the oath and promptly launched into damage control, promising a television media blitz and a late-night cabinet meeting. He’s hoping Germans remember the spin more than the stumble.
He’ll need to move quickly. The economy is limping after two years of recession, the far-right AfD is soaring in polls, and Berlin’s post-Merkel stability is a fond memory. The fragile coalition he leads—already undermined by anonymous mutiny—faces steep challenges pushing through legislation.
The most significant risk now is that this uneasy parliamentary alliance collapses under the weight of its contradictions, derailing key economic measures and putting Germany’s much-vaunted fiscal discipline on ice.
And while Merz inherits a €500 billion infrastructure fund and a newly loosened debt brake for defence spending (a political unicorn in Germany), his ability to actually wield these tools is far from guaranteed.
Meanwhile, AfD co-leader Alice Weidel wasted no time kicking a man when he was down, gloating that the vote proved the coalition stood on “weak foundations”. Ever the opportunist, Weidel also announced her party’s willingness to govern—because clearly, Germany needs a neo-nationalist co-pilot right now.
This debacle is a painful footnote for Merz in a career already marked by delays and detours. After years in the political wilderness following Merkel’s ousting, Merz returned to lead the CDU in 2021, only to find himself haunted by his own party’s nostalgia for a less complicated past.
As political communications professor Andrea Römmele observed, Merz is starting his mandate “with two black eyes and wobbly knees”—hardly the image of firm leadership one hopes for from Europe’s largest economy.
But then again, in 2025, why should anything be easy?