Merz faded: in Germany, for the first time in history, the first round of the election of the chancellor failed

On Tuesday, May 6, the first round of voting on the candidate for the post of chancellor took place in Germany. The leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), Friedrich Merz, failed to gain a majority of votes, after which he refused to hold a second round on the same day. However, it later became known that the second round would still take place. The causes and consequences of the incident are in the Izvestia article.

A historic defeat

At the end of February, early parliamentary elections were held in Germany, during which the CDU/CSU bloc took the first place. According to all forecasts, its leader Friedrich Merz was supposed to become the new chancellor of Germany. The right—wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party took second place in the elections, and the Social Democrats from the SPD took third place.

Today, on May 6, the first round of elections for Merz's candidacy for the post of chancellor was held in the country's parliament, but unexpectedly he could not get the necessary number of votes. If successful, members of his Government were to be sworn in today.

After the incident, information appeared that there would be no second round of voting today. This was reported by the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) with reference to its own information. This was also confirmed by the Bild news agency, referring to CDU Secretary General Carsten Linneman. However, Bild later wrote that the second round of voting was still scheduled for 16:15 Moscow time.

During the voting on May 6, Friedrich Merz received 310 votes out of the required 316. The German edition of Bild called the incident a historic defeat. It is important to note that the CDU/CSU and SPD bloc in the Bundestag have a total of 328 votes. Because of this, Merz's election was considered practically guaranteed. As Vladislav Belov, head of the Center for German Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences, noted, the voting situation shows that someone turned out to be against Friedrich Merz personally, and not against the coalition agreement and the points of the agreement.

— Another new chapter of Germany's political history is being written before our eyes. Exactly six months after the collapse of the traffic light coalition, another historic event is taking place — the failure of the candidate for the post of chancellor in the Bundestag, the expert believes.

The expert also rejected the possibility of external factors influencing the election outcome. The main reason, as he notes, was precisely the dissatisfaction of 18 unknown deputies with Merz. At the same time, it is currently unknown which parties they were from. Vladislav Belov argues that, for example, the Greens could have voted for Friedrich Merz, which is why the number of his opponents in the coalition bloc may be higher. In this case, the situation is not in favor of the future government factions.

Alice Weidel, the leader of the AFD, expressed her opinion about what happened on her account in the social network X: "Merz is the first candidate for chancellor of Germany, who failed in the first round of voting. This shows the weak foundation on which the small coalition (ironically called the "grand coalition" of the CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD)) is built. — Ed.) from the CDU/CSU and the SPD, which was not supported in the elections."

The second round should be

Initially, the second round of elections in Germany was canceled, in which case it was supposed to take place within 14 days, which is regulated by Article 63 of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany. Later, Bild announced the holding of the second round at 15:15 (16:15 Moscow time).

Despite the second round, Germany has already called for Friedrich Merz's resignation after his failure. Alice Weidel made the corresponding statement, her words are reported by the Bild news agency: "AFD leader Weidel calls for new elections! She also demands the resignation of Friedrich Merz after the failure of the vote."

The AdH factor

Artyom Sokolov told Izvestia that the factor of the AfD party could have played a role in the failure of the vote.

"A number of CDU members have recently expressed the view that it is acceptable, at least situationally, to interact with an alternative for Germany, given the rating that this party has, its high level of support, and given that it has clearly become a long—term phenomenon of German politics," says the expert.

In this context, it is important to note that on May 2, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution of Germany classified the AfD as "right-wing extremist." Artyom Sokolov draws attention to the fact that this does not mean a ban on its activities, but adds a new argument against cooperation with it and opens up new opportunities for provocations against the party and a new round of discussion about its ban.

Friedrich Merz, as the expert notes, expressed ambiguity on this topic. He talked about the permissibility of interacting with the party at the local level, but then he began to adhere to the exact opposite position. At the same time, he used the votes of the AFD deputies during the promotion of his initiative in the Bundestag to tighten migration legislation, which failed due to the internal fronde in the CDU. According to the expert, there was criticism that this vote together with the deputies of the AFD actually means the scrapping of the firewall, and that such situations add to confrontational plots within the CDU itself.

— Therefore, perhaps the plot with the discussion about the permissibility of interaction with the AFD was one of those that undermined the internal unity within the CDU and led to the formation of a group of people within this party who were ready for such symbolic and very sensitive gestures for the party and Friedrich Merz, but who considered it acceptable in the current situation. I admit that the AdH factor certainly played a role in these events," concludes Artyom Sokolov.