Germany's Merz falls short of majority in vote for chancellor

Germany's conservative leader has unexpectedly fallen short of the numbers needed to form a majority in parliament to become chancellor.

Friedrich Merz needed 316 votes in the 630-seat Bundestag but only secured 310, in a significant blow to the Christian Democrat leader, two and a half months after winning Germany's federal elections.

His coalition with the centre-left has enough seats in parliament but it appears 18 MPs who had been expected to back him dissented. Merz's failure in the first vote is seen as unprecedented in modern German history.

The Bundestag will now have another 14 days to choose either Merz or another candidate as chancellor.

Under Germany's constitution, there is no limit to how many votes can be held, but ultimately if no absolute majority is reached then a candidate can be elected without one.

No further votes were expected until at least Wednesday, although the Bundestag was due to reconvene at midday (10:00 GMT) amid a prevailing mood of confusion.

Merz's defeat is seen by political commentators as a humiliation, probably inflicted by members of the Social Democrat SPD, which signed a coalition deal with his conservatives on Monday.

Not everyone in the SPD is happy with the deal, but the historic nature of Merz's failure will be difficult for him to move on from. No candidate has failed in this way since 1949.

The embarrassment of Tuesday's vote undermines Merz's hopes of being an antidote to the weakness and division of the last government, which collapsed late last year.

Far-right party Alternative for Germany which came second in the February election with 20.8% of the vote seized on his failure. Joint leader Alice Weidel wrote on X that the vote showed "the weak foundation the small coalition has been built between the [conservatives] and SPD, which was rejected by voters".

Germany's handover of government is carefully choreographed. On the eve of Monday's vote, outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz was treated to a traditional Grand Tattoo by an armed forces orchestra.

Merz, 69, was expected to win the vote and then visit President Frank-Walter Steinmeier to be sworn in, fulfilling a long-held ambition to become German chancellor.

His rival and former chancellor Angela Merkel had come to the Bundestag to watch the vote take place.

Merz's immediate decision now will be to decide with his coalition partners whether he should push for a second vote and take the risk of failing again.

His defeat threatens to cause splits within the coalition.

Political correspondents in the Bundestag said the failure to back Merz indicated that even if the coalition did come to power eventually, there was a potential issue lurking within its ranks.

Less than 24 hours earlier, the messaging had been very different, with Germany putting six months of political paralysis to an end.

"It's our historical duty to make this government a success," Merz had said as he signed the coalition document.

Despite having a narrow majority of 12 seats, the agreement between the conservatives and centre left was seen as far more stable than the so-called traffic-light coalition of three parties which fell apart last November in a row over debt spending.

The SPD, which had been the biggest party in the old coalition slumped to its worst post-war election result in third place, but Merz had promised that Germany was back and that he would boost its voice on the world stage and revive a flagging economy.

After two years of recession, Europe's largest economy grew in the first three months of 2025. However economists have warned of potential risks to German exports because of US-imposed tariffs.

Germany's services sector contracted last month because of weaker demand and lower consumer spending.