BERLIN — Conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed in his first bid to become Germany’s chancellor on Tuesday, falling short of a parliamentary majority in a surprise result that exposed cracks in his newly formed coalition and plunged Europe’s largest economy back into political uncertainty.
Merz, 69, who led the center-right CDU/CSU alliance to a narrow victory in February’s federal election and just signed a coalition deal with the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), secured only 310 votes in the Bundestag — six votes short of the 316 needed for an absolute majority. At least 18 coalition lawmakers either abstained or broke ranks, an unprecedented setback for a chancellor-designate in post-war German politics.
Bundestag President Julia Kloeckner announced that 307 lawmakers voted against Merz while nine abstained. The surprise defeat triggered immediate political fallout, with Merz canceling planned visits to France and Poland and retreating for emergency consultations with party leaders.
“This is a historic failure. It underscores the fragile unity of the coalition and raises deep concerns about Merz’s mandate to govern,” said Jens Suedekum of the Düsseldorf Institute for Competition Economics.
Despite the blow, Merz remains the likely candidate for chancellor, but the failed first vote has thrown the coalition’s cohesion into doubt at a moment of mounting global and domestic challenges. The Bundestag now has 14 days to elect a chancellor before other constitutional mechanisms are triggered.
Merz had campaigned on restoring fiscal discipline while expanding defense and infrastructure spending, including a controversial proposal to ease Germany’s strict borrowing rules. Some members of his own bloc were uneasy about the policy shift, and analysts said internal dissent likely contributed to Tuesday’s defeat.
“The government still needs to convince its own supporters that it will be able to deliver,” said Carsten Brzeski, ING’s chief economist for Germany. “The failed vote is clearly a sign that not everyone in the CDU agrees with the fiscal U-turn.”
German financial markets reacted nervously, with shares extending earlier losses and bond yields slipping amid renewed uncertainty.
Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc won just 28.5% in the February election and needed to bring the SPD, which captured only 16.4%, into a coalition to form a majority. The two-party pact was seen as fragile from the outset, especially as both parties have lost further ground in recent polls. The far-right Alternative for Germany, which finished second, has surged in popularity, capitalizing on disillusionment with the political establishment.
“Merz failing to get elected in the first round casts a dark shadow over the future of the coalition,” said Philipp Koeker, a political scientist at the University of Hanover. “Even if he wins the second round, the damage to inter-party trust is done.”
Germany has been governed by a caretaker administration since Olaf Scholz’s SPD-led three-party coalition collapsed last November. With no majority government in place, key legislative efforts have stalled.
The political chaos comes amid a looming global trade war triggered by President Donald Trump’s latest round of tariffs, which threatens to prolong Germany’s economic slump into a third consecutive year. Trump has also rattled NATO allies by questioning America’s defense commitments, prompting European capitals to accelerate military spending.
For Merz, the failure to secure a mandate on the first ballot is a deeply symbolic blow that calls into question his ability to steer Germany through mounting economic and geopolitical turbulence.
