Friedrich Merz elected as German chancellor after a first failed voting
On Tuesday, the German Bundestag elected conservative leader Friedrich Merz as chancellor in the second round of voting, after his shock defeat in the first round, in a first time a chancellor to be elected in the Bundestag from the second-round voting.
In the second round, Meretz received 325 votes out of 630 members in the Knesset, compared to 289 votes against, thus securing an absolute majority.
On the same day, Meretz lost the first round of parliamentary voting to elect him chancellor, an unexpected setback for the new coalition between the conservatives and the center-left Social Democratic Party.
The conservative bloc, which includes the Christian Democratic Union and the Christian Social Union, topped the February elections, but received only 28.5% of the vote, leaving it needing at least one partner to form a coalition.
Merz agreed to form a coalition with the Social Democratic Party, which received only 16.4% of the vote, its worst result in post-war German history.
Merz is tasked with demonstrating leadership skills after the collapse of the three-party coalition led by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) last November left a political vacuum at the heart of Europe at a time when it is facing countless crises.
