Friedrich Merz suffered an unprecedented setback in Germany's postwar political history on May 6, 2025, when he failed to secure the absolute majority required to become chancellor in the first Bundestag ballot, despite the parliamentary majority held by his prospective coalition.
Merz received 310 votes, six short of the 316 required in the 630-seat Bundestag. According to the official Bundestag record, 621 lawmakers participated in the secret ballot: 310 voted for Merz, 307 against him, three abstained and one ballot was invalid.
The result was the first time in the history of the Federal Republic that a candidate nominated by the federal president had failed to win the chancellorship in the initial parliamentary ballot.
Coalition Majority Did Not Translate Into Votes
Merz's conservative CDU/CSU bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) had agreed to form a coalition following Germany's February 23 federal election. Together, their parliamentary groups held 328 seats at the time of the chancellor vote, theoretically enough to elect him.
Because the ballot was secret, however, it was not possible to determine which individual lawmakers withheld their support. The first-round result therefore showed that 18 fewer lawmakers voted for Merz than the coalition's combined seat total, but it did not establish which party or members were responsible.
The setback came one day after CDU, CSU and SPD leaders signed their coalition agreement. It immediately raised questions about cohesion within the incoming government, while opposition parties offered sharply different interpretations of the result.
Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which had finished second in the February election, used the failed ballot to criticize the new coalition. Such statements represented the party's political interpretation of the vote rather than an independent finding about the coalition's durability.
What Germany's Constitution Required Next
The initial failure did not automatically trigger a new election or prevent Merz from becoming chancellor. Article 63 of Germany's Basic Law provides a multi-stage process for electing the head of government.
After a candidate proposed by the federal president fails to receive the votes of a majority of all Bundestag members, parliament has 14 days in which it may elect a chancellor with an absolute majority. If no candidate achieves that threshold during the period, another ballot must take place without delay. In that final constitutional phase, the candidate receiving the most votes is elected; if that candidate lacks an absolute majority, the federal president has seven days either to appoint the candidate or dissolve the Bundestag.
In Merz's case, lawmakers did not need to wait 14 days.
Merz Won a Second Ballot the Same Day
Later on May 6, the CDU/CSU and SPD parliamentary groups again nominated Merz. The Bundestag agreed to a procedural exception that allowed the second vote to take place that afternoon rather than after the normal waiting period for consideration of the new nomination.
Merz then secured the required majority. In the second ballot, official Bundestag figures show that he received 325 of 618 votes cast, with 289 lawmakers voting against him, one abstaining and three ballots declared invalid.
After accepting the result, Merz went to Bellevue Palace, where President Frank-Walter Steinmeier formally appointed him chancellor. He subsequently returned to the Bundestag and took the oath of office, completing the transfer of power from outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
The unusual sequence made the first-round defeat a significant political setback but only a temporary constitutional obstacle. By the end of May 6, Merz had been elected, appointed and sworn in as Germany's tenth federal chancellor.
Why the First Vote Still Mattered
Although the second ballot resolved the immediate question of government formation, the first result exposed uncertainty inside a coalition whose numerical parliamentary majority had appeared sufficient before voting began.
The secret ballot meant responsibility for the missing votes could not be established from the official result alone. Claims assigning them specifically to SPD or conservative lawmakers therefore remained political speculation unless individual members disclosed how they voted.
For Germany's new government, the episode provided an unusually turbulent beginning. Constitutionally, however, the situation was resolved within hours through the Bundestag's established procedures, allowing the CDU/CSU-SPD coalition to take office on the same day.
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