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.
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.