Merz fails 1st round of German chancellor vote in parliament

By Anadolu staff

BERLIN (AA) - Conservative leader Friedrich Merz on Tuesday failed to secure the required majority in the first round of voting for the German chancellor in the parliament.

In the secret ballot, 310 members of parliament voted for Merz, while 307 voted against him. Merz needed a simple majority of at least 316 votes to be elected chancellor but fell short of this threshold.

The first-round setback comes despite Merz's conservative CDU/CSU alliance and its junior coalition partner, the Social Democratic Party (SPD), having a comfortable majority of 328 seats in the Bundestag, surpassing the required 316-seat threshold.

The German Christian Democrats (CDU/CSU) officially signed a coalition deal with the center-left SPD on Monday, following weeks of negotiations after the Feb. 23 elections. The Christian Democrats won the snap elections with 28.5% of the vote but fell short of an outright majority. Though the Social Democrats recorded their lowest-ever result at 16.4%, they emerged as a crucial coalition partner.