{"id":425709,"date":"2025-05-06T11:37:11","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T09:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/05\/06\/caos-germania-merz-bocciato-nel-primo-scrutinio-per-diventare-cancelliere\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T17:34:32","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:34:32","slug":"chaos-in-germany-as-merz-fails-to-be-elected-chancellor-in-first-vote","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/05\/06\/chaos-in-germany-as-merz-fails-to-be-elected-chancellor-in-first-vote\/","title":{"rendered":"Chaos in Germany as Merz fails to be elected chancellor in first vote"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>UPDATE: In a second vote held in the afternoon, Merz obtained the required majority, with 325 votes in favour.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Brussels &#8211; <strong>A dramatic turn of\u00a0events in Berlin:<\/strong>\u00a0for the first time in German history, the chancellor-in-waiting\u00a0<strong>Friedrich Merz<\/strong> failed&#8211;by a whisker&#8211;to be elected on the <strong>first ballot<\/strong> by parliament in this morning&#8217;s (May 6) session. The leader of the CDU <strong>fell short by six votes\u00a0to cross\u00a0the absolute majority threshold<\/strong>, set at 316 in the new <i>Bundestag<\/i> composed of 630 members.<\/p>\n<div class=\"flourish-embed flourish-parliament\" data-src=\"visualisation\/23031279\"><script src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/resources\/embed.js\"><\/script><noscript><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/public.flourish.studio\/visualisation\/23031279\/thumbnail\" width=\"100%\" alt=\"parliament visualization\" \/><\/noscript><\/div>\n<p class=\"p1\">Instead, <strong>Merz secured\u00a0only 310 &#8220;yes&#8221; votes.<\/strong> It was a severe setback, given that on paper,\u00a0his majority in the <strong>House counts 328 deputies<\/strong> (208 from the Union, composed of the CDU and CSU, and 120 from the SPD), and everything seemed to run smoothly. However,\u00a0the <strong>secret ballot <\/strong>provided cover for <strong>at least 18 rebels,<\/strong> a development more typical of Italy than Germany, clearly\u00a0demonstrating how the days of proverbial political stability in Germany are now definitely over. By an ironic coincidence, all this happened exactly six months after the collapse of the &#8220;traffic light coalition&#8221; of the outgoing chancellor, the Social Democratic leader <strong>Olaf Scholz.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">It was the <strong>first time in the history of the Federal Republic<\/strong> that a chancellor-in-waiting (i.e., someone who, like the 69-year-old conservative leader, had already put together a parliamentary majority and a government team) did not get the green light from the Chamber on the first ballot. Confusion reigns supreme at the <i>Bundestag<\/i>, where <strong>the session was adjourned,<\/strong> and political groups met to <strong>coordinate the next steps<\/strong>. The <strong>future of the government<\/strong> thus remains\u00a0<strong>hanging by a thread<\/strong>, with the &#8220;grand coalition&#8221; between conservatives and social democrats proving to be crippled\u00a0even before it takes office.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_419583\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"width: 1024px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-419583 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"Friedrich Merz\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN-750x500.jpg 750w, https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/000_36YH9EN-1140x760.jpg 1140w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-419583\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">CDU leader Friedrich Merz (photo: Ina Fassbender\/Afp)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"p1\">According to German law, <strong>there should be\u00a0a second ballot within 14 days<\/strong> to try again to elect Merz as Bundeskanzler. Technically, there is no cap on the number of possible votes, but <strong>an absolute majority of assembly members <\/strong>is always required for election at this stage. According to local media reports, however, <strong>the second round will not be held today<\/strong> to avoid a disastrous replay of this morning&#8217;s vote. Unconfirmed rumors indicate Friday (May 9) as the most likely date.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Should the head of the Christian Democrats\u00a0fail again to get 316 votes, it will enter the <strong>third phase<\/strong> of the process in which the hemicycle will have to <strong>elect &#8220;immediately&#8221; another candidate<\/strong> to head the government. In this vote, however, the <strong>relative majority<\/strong> of the members of Parliament will be sufficient.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">If the new chancellor is elected during the second phase, the President of the Republic,\u00a0<strong>Frank-Walter Steinmeier,<\/strong> will have seven days to appoint him to lead the executive. If, on the contrary, he is elected during the third phase, the head of state will have to <strong>choose between appointment<\/strong> (again within seven days) or to\u00a0<strong>disband the <i>Bundestag<\/i><\/strong> and call new early elections. The <strong>ultra-right wing of AfD<\/strong> has already begun to call for the latter outcome.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-o-mail-quote-node=\"1\" data-o-mail-quote=\"1\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"de\">&#8220;As the AfD, we have set out to turn this country upside down. We are ready for government responsibility. And call for common sense to prevail. Mr. <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Merz?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">#Merz<\/a> should step down immediately. The way should be opened for new elections in our country!&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/gzZochF5p5\">pic.twitter.com\/gzZochF5p5<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Alice Weidel (@Alice_Weidel) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Alice_Weidel\/status\/1919678458172420509?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">May 6, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In an unprecedented turn of events, the leader of the German conservatives was six votes short of an absolute majority. Eighteen rebels destabilized what was supposed to be a mere procedural step. Now, the future of the CDU-SPD government hangs by a thread<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":425701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25681],"tags":[26267,30559,31151,29635],"class_list":["post-425709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","tag-bundestag-en","tag-election-chancellor-en","tag-friedrich-merz-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425709"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425709\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":425815,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425709\/revisions\/425815"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}