Merz elected German chancellor
Published: 04:05 PM,May 06,2025 | EDITED : 08:05 PM,May 06,2025
Incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz receives his certificate of appointment from German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier during a ceremony at Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany May 6, 2025. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse
German conservative leader Friedrich Merz was elected by lawmakers as the country's new chancellor on Tuesday, hours after suffering a humiliating defeat in a first round of voting on an extraordinary day in Berlin. Merz secured the necessary absolute majority to succeed outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the second round of voting, receiving 325 votes in the 630-seat Bundestag, Germany's lower house of parliament. The earlier failure was a major embarrassment for Merz, who became the first candidate to fall at the final hurdle to becoming chancellor in post-war German history. His incoming coalition — comprised of his Christian Democrats (CDU), the Bavaria-only Christian Social Union (CSU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) - holds 328 seats in the new Bundestag, but Merz won the backing of only 310 lawmakers in the first vote, falling short of the required absolute majority by six votes. — AFP