Germany’s conservative frontrunner Friedrich Merz faced a significant political defeat Tuesday after falling short of a majority in the initial vote to become chancellor, casting doubt on his ability to lead a stable government.
Merz had expected to win a majority of at least 316 of the 630 votes in the lower house of parliament. But he won the backing of only 310 MPs, with 307 voting against him.
There will now be two further rounds of voting in the Bundestag, and in the third and final round, a simple majority of lawmakers will suffice to see him elected.
The vote had been widely seen as a formality, with Merz backed by a coalition of his CDU/CSU alliance, which won February's general elections, and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who together have 328 seats.
Three lawmakers abstained, with one invalid ballot, while nine MPs were absent.
Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party – the largest opposition party, which scored a record of over 20% in the election – cheered the surprise result.
If Merz wins the vote to become chancellor, the 69-year-old head of the CDU/CSU alliance will replace Olaf Scholz of the SPD, whose three-party coalition government collapsed in November.
Hoping to become modern Germany's 10th chancellor, Merz has vowed to revive the ailing economy, curb irregular migration and strengthen Berlin's role in Europe as it responds to increasingly turbulent times.
Germany's political drama comes as U.S. President Donald Trump has upended long-standing transatlantic security and trade ties and rattled allies by reaching out directly to Russia to end the Ukraine war.
Trump has heaped pressure on European allies, accusing them of spending too little on NATO and taking advantage of the United States through running trade surpluses, threatening tariffs, especially painful to export power Germany.
Merz, who boasts a strong business background but has never held a government leadership post, said on Monday that "we live in times of profound change, of profound upheaval ... and of great uncertainty."
"And that is why we know that it is our historic obligation to lead this coalition to success," he said.
The alliance of Germany's two big-tent parties has vowed, once in government, to continue to support Ukraine as the United States looks to encourage a deal to end the war started by Russia's full-scale invasion over three years ago.
Expecting to take power, the coalition has already secured hundreds of billions of euros in fiscal firepower under a spending "bazooka" passed by the outgoing parliament.
Their aim is to rebuild crumbling infrastructure and the long-underfunded military while boosting an economy that has shrunk for two years.
Merz has also vowed to curb irregular migration and deploy extra police to secure Germany's borders, ending the open-door policy that welcomed millions of migrants under his party rival, ex-chancellor Angela Merkel.
The CDU leader has warned that only such drastic steps will prevent the AfD from potentially coming out on top in elections in four years' time.
The stakes were heightened when Germany's domestic intelligence service on Friday designated the AfD as a "right-wing extremist" party, reviving debate on whether it should be banned.
This sparked a furious response from Trump allies who have supported the anti-immigration AfD, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio accusing the German spy agency of "tyranny in disguise."
