Friedrich Merz became a new German office

Berlin, BRATISLAVA. Clear winner of the German parliamentary elections, the leader of the Conservative Party CDU and a candidate for the office Friedrich Merz, He gained the confidence of the German Parliament for the second attempt.

He was supported by 325 deputies in the second vote, with 316, Merz is a candidate for a wide coalition of the CDU Conservative Union/CSU and Social Democratic SPD.

The pronouncement of Trust in Bundestag was preceded by a shocking moment when Merz did not succeed in the first vote, which has not happened to any candidate since 1949. The parties only signed a coalition agreement on Monday.

In the first vote, Merz expected the support of 328 coalition deputies, but he only received 310.

The vote was secret, so it is not clear that Merza’s coalition deputies did not support.

Merz is already weakened

Friedrich Merz Already in the first vote on Trust in Bundestag he entered a relatively weak position, Jakub Eberle from the Institute of International Relations of the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University evaluates SME. The CDU/CSU result 28.5 percent in the February elections was the second worst party performance ever.

« In addition, Merz led the party to the right, especially in economic and social issues, such as migration, » he adds. Eberle is convinced that Merz cannot enforce this agenda in the coalition, as the coalition itself does not have a large majority and Merz faces opposition from both sides of the political spectrum.

« Merz starts as an office because no one else has left. His support is very low among the inhabitants, » he says.

German foreign policy, determination to build more robust armed forces and support Ukraine However, the rapid Merza crisis should not affect the rapid crisis. « Germany is already at the moment thanks to the decisions that took place after the elections, ie the release of the debt brake for defense expenses, will massively invest in defense. This trend has relatively wide support, » Eberle thinks.

Similarly, he perceives the German position in the support of Ukraine, or the overall orientation in foreign policy, which there is a consensus wider than the double -coalition itself – the Green and partly also the left -wing party Die Linke.

However, even in foreign policy, Merza would be easier to work with if he did not have to cover his back continuously, says the expert.

Despite the fact that Merza did not support part of her own coalition, Eberle does not think that Merz had to offer some further concessions in the background. « I wouldn’t read the first vote that there is a group that is now waiting for the offer. Rather, I think it is individual manifestations of dissatisfaction with either Merz himself or Lars Klingbeil from SPD, » he says.

Klingbeil is one of the party leaders and the coalition counts with him as a vice -champion.

Historical defeat

British BBC It points out that Friedrich Merz is difficult to recover from the defeat, as such a situation has not yet occurred in the history of German politics.

According to the station, German commentators suspected deputies of the left -wing SPD, where Merza’s support was not solid.

In addition, Merz had the ambition to be a contrast to the weak government of its predecessor Olaf Scholz. On Wednesday he will be visits to Paris and Warsaw and participation in the celebrations of the end of World War II on Thursday.

« It is a disaster for Merza. His whole offer was that there were too many political instability and internal disputes in Germany during the reign of Olaf Scholz. The government was not even actionable. Merz was supposed to be an action politician that pulls Germany out of a stupid mood, » said after the first vote in the broadcast of Deutsche Welle The head of her foreign editorial office Richard Walker.

Prague expert Jakub Eberle read the situation similarly. « Merz is quite necessarily and predictably disappointing at least part of his voters. His main logan was a change – he promised a different politics style, right -wing. But before the elections it was clear that he would have to rule with social democrats or green or with both together, » he comments.

The problem is that he contributes to the big problem of German politics – that a large part of the German voters is disappointed with all political parties. It plays in carats mainly AfD, but also left (Die Link).

Walker pointed out that the previous coalition led by Olaf Scholz was disintegrating, but at least it was able to gain confidence in the Bundestag.

He suspects left -wing SPD from the sabotage. « Merz among social democrats is not very popular, especially because of its attitude to migration, where he is too right for leftists. They suspect that he is adapting to AfD, » he said.

However, Merz also has critics in his own CDU, blaming him that he has made too many concessions against the SPD in coalition negotiations, or they look at the threat of increasing public debt.

The Social Democrats defended that there was no deputy on their party’s first vote, and their chairman Lars Klingbeil said he was not aware that any of the SPD Merza deputies did not support, TASR wrote, referring to the German DPA agency.

A day of uncertainty

There were several hours of uncertainty between the first and second voting in Berlin. Although the Constitution admits a repeated vote, the possibility that Bundestag would vote on another candidate, says Official Office Office website.

If Bundestag could not choose the office even in the second round, there would be a third round in which the candidate no longer needs most of the whole parliament, but he needs a so -called « relative majority », the highest number of votes cast.

If the candidate is elected only by an absolute majority, the federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier must name it, but if it was supported by only a relative majority, it has the opportunity to either list it or dissolve Bundestag.

AFD already wants new elections

The coalition crisis, which was created only a day after Monday’s signature of the coalition agreement, is the most beneficial of the opposition extreme right -wing party AfD, whose co -chairman Alice Weidel has already declared that Merz should retreat and free up the way to the way to Early elections.

The last ones were held in Germany in February and the AfD finished second for the CDU/CSU with almost 21 percent of the vote.