Germany’s Merz Secures Majority In Emergency Vote, After First Round Failure (Updated)
BBC: “No candidate has failed in this way in the 76 years of Germany’s post-war republic.”
Days after Germany’s outgoing government designated the main opposition party, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), as ‘extremist’, paving the way for a likely ban, Friedrich Merz failed to secure a majority for his Christian Conservative (CDU) party in the parliament.
Update: The second round was set for Wednesday, but the lawmakers went for a early vote to confirm Merz as chancellor. “Friedrich Merz has secured a majority in the second round of voting at the German Bundestag, averting a constitutional crisis,” Germany’s DW TV reported Monday afternoon.
Merz, who earlier this week signed a coalition deal with the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD), received 310 votes in a 630-member house, falling six short of the required absolute majority. In a secret ballot, at least 18 lawmakers from the conservative-socialist coalition failed to back him.
This is a historic debacle for Merz and his Christian-Conservative party. “Friedrich Merz failed in the first round of voting: When [speaker of the parliament] Julia Klöckner declared the result, there is deafening silence in the Bundestag,” German magazine Der Spiegel reported. “For the first time in history, Friedrich Merz, a designated chancellor, has failed in the first round of voting,” the weekly observed.
Reuters describes today’s vote as “an embarrassment for a man who has promised to restore German leadership on the world stage.”
This is how Friedrich Merz reacted when it was announced that he had failed to achieve the majority required to be elected Germany's chancellor: pic.twitter.com/DZAOtbgpN8
— DW News (@dwnews) May 6, 2025
Germany’s state-run DW TV reports:
Friedrich Merz has been dealt a major setback as he failed to garner the votes required to be chancellor in the first round of voting. (…)
It wasn’t initially clear what will happen next, but a second vote was unlikely to be held on Tuesday.
This is the first time such a thing has happened in Germany’s postwar history. (…)
Merz won the backing of only 310 lawmakers, with 307 members voting against in a vote determined by a secret ballot.
Three lawmakers abstained, with one invalid ballot, while nine lawmakers were absent.
The historic setback has tarnished Merz’s chancellorship even before it could begin. The right-wing AfD leads nationwide polls, signalling buyer’s remorse among conservative voters. AfD leader Alice Weidel has accused Merz of ‘election fraud’ for backing down on his campaign promise of closing Germany’s borders to illegal migrants.
“There was a prevailing mood of confusion in the parliament in the hours after the vote,” the BBC noted. “The historic nature of Merz’s failure will be difficult for him to move on untarnished. No candidate has failed in this way in the 76 years of Germany’s post-war republic.”
🚨🇩🇪 BREAKING: FRIEDRICH MERZ LOSES CHANCELLOR ELECTION‼️
For the first time in history, the designated chancellor loses the parliamentary election.
This is the consequence of his unprecedented voter BETRAYAL.@Alice_Weidel: “Today we saw that liars won’t get far.” pic.twitter.com/xrCGGnYi3f
— Naomi Seibt (@SeibtNaomi) May 6, 2025
The Bundestag is expected to vote again on Wednesday. Merz has 14 days to prove his majority in the house, or the country may face new elections. If Merz fails, “the constitution allows for the president to appoint the candidate who wins the most votes as chancellor, or to dissolve the Bundestag and hold a new national election,” the France24 TV channel noted.
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Comments
Clearly some more people need to be banned.
“In a secret ballot”
Are German parliamentary leadership votes always secret?
Yes.
Not exactly on point, but it pertains to the future of Germany, and how history is seemingly repeating itself.
Germany is poised to ban the AfD. It seems these people have learned nothing from history. When you ostracize people you only embolden the most radical. Germany banned the Nazi party in 1923. Where did that get them?
If you disallow open debate you ultimately make the ostracized group more powerful. We see that here with Trump.
Yeah. Not sure I’d go quite that far but it is definitely a bad idea to pull the plug on folks ability to communicate via choice of political representation. Denying a segment of the population the ability to engage in peaceful political dialogue and have a seat at the table sends the message that the establishment won’t listen to peaceful dialogue. That has some vary dangerous implications for what comes after it. The populists are not gonna go away b/c the AfD is banned, instead they are more likely to choose other means to make their voices heard.
From Merz to schmerz! Maybe he’ll get picked on the third draft.
Clearly there is no confidence in the man, hold a new general election.
After all, you can trick those anti-migrant rubes again, right?
Going down the road to banning the second most popular party in the country and the only one not onboard the Muslim Invasion doesn’t seem to be popular for the subjects in Germany. He managed on the second vote but only by being held hostage by far smaller fringe parties which indicates a very rocky road for the globalists destroying Germany as fast as they can
german msm quickly added
we dont think we will blame zjews..but we might
You can’t pin the blame-ze-Jews thing on just Germany, Show me ANY European country that despises Jews any less than Germany.
the article was about germany
Evil and totalitarian Islamofascism melded with impoverishing and self-destructive “green” fascism — German leftists have found their replacement ideology for National Socialism.
If we used the same criteria as the Germans, we could declare the Democrat party to be extreme and ban them. If we look at their leaders, they are the most extreme, America-hating people of any political party.
That’s why we have a first amendment. It’s what makes the USA worth defending.
Seems like they are having several constitutional crisis. Banning the opposition and failing to easily anoint a new chancellor. Considering Germany is being invaded by muslim hordes, is already Putin’s bitch because of where they get their energy. has repudiated democracy through their ban of a popular party, and has constantly failed to provide for their own defense I don’t think they are prepared to lead a line of ducklings across a park.
They did end up holding a second vote and they were able to threaten 15 people into voting for Merz. The left is not going to allow anything to derail their agenda.
From eugyppius:
That was part of the price demanded for creating a governing coalition… and the second vote that Merz won required assistance of the communist/socialists which Merz had also promised voters not to seek during the election.
Given the spate of establishment political parties holding on by their fingertips with assists from banning candidates, seeking to ban entire rival parties and in a.couple of cases demanding and getting a ‘do over’ from the Judiciary….I suspect that they won’t be successful in convincing any reasonable people about their good faith intentions in the next election… assuming these totalitarian goons allow them to be held.
Re your first para:
Ironic that what Merz ended up doing required repudiation of TWO of his highly advertised “principles”… whereas seeking a coalition with AfD instead would have repudiated only one, AND delivered a stronger majority coalition to boot.
You are making the assumption that German voters will ever have another chance to weigh in on the government. Be sure that the American Left is watching this carefully.
Subotai Bahadur
What a bunch of rank amateurs.They aren’t even trying. If they’re going to run up a debt they should take a lesson from the U.S. Federal Government and do it right. The Fed is currently up to $33 TRILLION in debt and with the last CSR they raised the debt ceiling to $48 TRILLION just to keep the
Ponzi schemegovernment going.If and when you ban a significant political party (except perhaps for one advocating violent overthrow to gain power), that is the end of calling yourself a “democratic society”. Even if the powers that be allow elections between their factions, that is not democracy.
Here’s a major update:
“From today, ALL migrants will be prevented from crossing Germany’s land borders illegally – even if they claim asylum,” orders new Merz government.
“Legally, neighbouring countries are required to accept push-backs without question, and if Germany is consistent with push-backs, the sheer number of rejected migrants will compel our neighbours to enact their own push-backs as well. A domino effect will take root, which will end with the restoration of security at the external borders of the EU. This could be the end of an era – one of the stupidest, most pointless and self-destructive eras in modern European history.”
The AfD has effectively won the immigration debate, as the terrified “centrists” scramble to co-opt their policies as their own.
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