Germany Elevates Leader After Vote Fails Once --- Need for second round to confirm Merz as chancellor puts agenda at risk

"BERLIN -- Germany's Parliament voted on Tuesday to make Friedrich Merz the country's chancellor, but lawmakers needed a second round for the first time in the nation's postwar history, raising questions about the new government's ability to enact its ambitious policy agenda.

The failure of the first vote came despite Merz's proposed coalition holding a relatively comfortable 12-seat majority. Since the vote is secret and no dissenter has come forward, it isn't clear why a dozen members of the conservative's proposed coalition didn't initially back him.

In the end, the new chancellor's swearing in was only postponed for a few hours, but the chaotic transfer of power is more than a simple embarrassment.

Merz has pledged to rebuild Germany's leadership in Europe, end a slow-burn immigration crisis that has poisoned European politics, and reboot the world's third-largest economy, which has barely grown since before the Covid-19 pandemic.

Six months after Olaf Scholz's government collapsed after losing its parliamentary majority, Berlin's partners have been waiting for a new leader to take the reins.

Europe has yet to formulate a response to President Trump's efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine.

As one of the world's largest exporters, Germany is also expected to be a strong voice in the discussion about how to respond to Trump's proposed tariffs, whose implementation is now suspended until the summer.

The government is on notice to show that it can restore parliamentary discipline in its own ranks and ensure that it can pass legislation, however controversial or ambitious, said Ursula Munch, director of the Academy for Political Education in Tutzing, in southern Germany.

"Trust in politicians and the government is already low and this won't help to re-establish it," she said. "Hopefully, staring into the abyss will have had a cathartic effect on lawmakers."

Following days of gains, Germany's blue-chip DAX 40 stock index fell more than 1% after the first vote, though it later recouped some of its losses.

Since Merz won the election in February, he had passed every hurdle that could have torpedoed his effort to form a government.

A constitutional overhaul paving the way for a one-trillion-euro defense- and infrastructure-spending plan, the equivalent of about $1.37 trillion, got the required two-thirds majority of both houses of Parliament in March.

Merz then clinched a 144-page coalition agreement with the center-left Social Democratic Party.

In the end, he stumbled at the last step -- one that had historically been a ceremonial formality.

Leaders of his coalition were so surprised by the "no" vote in the first round that they had to consult with Parliament's legal department to find out whether a second vote could be held the same day.

Merz has ruffled many feathers in recent months. His decision to push an anti-immigration motion through Parliament with the help of the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, ahead of the election sparked hefty protests among the left and center-left.

His conservative course and personnel decisions have also alienated some moderate allies of former Chancellor Angela Merkel.

One theory making the rounds in Berlin is that these accumulated grudges led some coalition lawmakers to withhold their support in the first round, not expecting this would torpedo the vote. Merz got almost full support from allied lawmakers in the second round.

Andreas Rodder, a history professor and head of the conservative think tank Denkfabrik R21, said the fiasco also reflected mounting frustration among lawmakers that Germany has been led by left-right coalitions almost without interruption since 2005.

"We thought we had stability, but in fact it's become immobility," he said. "Real political change is no longer happening."

In Germany and almost all across Europe, centrists have lost ground to antiestablishment and populist parties on the left and the right. The ensuing fragmentation has made it harder for centrist parties to form stable governments. France, Germany's western neighbor, has had a minority government for several years.

Manfred Gullner, head of the Forsa polling group, said the voting drama could play into the hands of the AfD, which has overtaken Merz's Christian Democratic Union in some polls. "When what used to be a reliable system breaks down, then the winners are those who want to destroy the system," he said.

Speaking just before the second vote, Bernd Baumann, an AfD lawmaker, told Parliament: "This government was started as unstable and it will remain unstable. That is the last thing the country needs."

Merz's foreign-travel plans, once in doubt, were back on track, with visits to Paris and Warsaw scheduled for Wednesday, followed by a trip to Ukraine in the coming days.” [1]

No worry, Merz will build concentration camps for AfD. Germany has a lot of experience in solving such small problems.

1.  Germany Elevates Leader After Vote Fails Once --- Need for second round to confirm Merz as chancellor puts agenda at risk. Bertrand, Benoit.  Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y.. 07 May 2025: A1.