Friedrich Merz was elected Federal Chancellor of Germany during the second round of voting in the Bundestag. He won 325 votes of deputies, exceeding the required minimum of 316 votes. About this informs Spiegel.
Voting took place on the afternoon of May 6, after a failed first attempt in which Mertz received only 310 votes. This time, 325 parliamentarians supported his candidacy, which is nine more than the minimum required number. 289 deputies voted against, one abstained, three more ballots were declared invalid.
This case was the first in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, when a candidate for the position of chancellor was defeated in the first round of voting in the parliament after reaching a coalition agreement.
We will remind that on April 9, 2025, German conservatives and social democrats agreed on the creation of a coalition government. On April 30, Olaf Scholz’s party approved a coalition with the CDU/CSU bloc, and Merz was nominated as a candidate for chancellor. On May 5, the Social Democratic Party officially signed a coalition agreement with the Christian Democratic and Christian Social Unions.
