Merz stumbles, setting off a major scare…in Germany and beyond
Some 15 hours before Friedrich Merz was supposed to be elected Germany’s 10th postwar chancellor, The Economist’s Berlin bureau chief sent out a newsletter that contained the following sentence: “Troublingly, it is far easier than it should be to find senior figures in the CDU [Mr Merz’s party] who have grave doubts about their leader, even before he begins his work.”
Well, Tom Nuttall, The Economist’s man in Berlin, appears to have been prescient.
On Tuesday, May 6, the unthinkable happened and Mr Merz failed to win the first Bundestag vote to formally take office as chancellor.
He lost by six votes even though his coalition has a 12-seat parliamentary majority.
He lost a vote that was expected to be a mere formality.
Never, in the history of post-war Germany had this happened at the federal level.
It felt like the knives really were out for Mr Merz, the point made by The Economist’s Berlin bureau chief.
The Financial Times has quoted Trier University political scientist Uwe Jun to say that the “huge surprise” of the Bundestag vote result meant “clearly Merz has opponents in the coalition”.
What has Mr Merz done (or not done) to earn this level of hostility?
According to Mr Nuttall, he is regarded as overly volatile. After the failed first Bundestag vote, it was suggested that Mr Merz had annoyed fiscally conservative party members by pushing a huge increase in defence spending. Meanwhile, some members in the left-wing SDP, which will partner the CDU in the governing coalition, thought Mr Merz too conservative.
He seemed stuck, rather throwing out domestic and international expectations focussed on Berlin from this week forward.
Then he cleared the second vote and became chancellor.
The high drama came as all of Europe looks to Germany to assert itself as the anchor of a European powerhouse. And the wider world looks to Europe to see how it navigates the next phase of a troubled time in geopolitics.
Mr Merz didn’t get there…first time round. It set off a big scare in Germany, Europe and further afield. Will Germany’s Merz-led coalition government be stable?
