Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted
3 hours ago, KYHorn said:

Germans need to get it together. They're currently scrambling to try to quickly hold a second round of votes. 

Friedrich Merz’s bid to become Germany’s chancellor fails in parliament in a stunning defeat

  Reveal hidden contents

BERLIN (AP) — In a historic first, conservative leader Friedrich Merz ’s bid to become Germany’s 10th chancellor since World War II failed by six votes in parliament on Tuesday, a stunning defeat as he had been widely expected to win smoothly.

A candidate for chancellor has never failed to win on the first ballot since the end of the war. The loss triggered a stock market slide: the DAX, the index of major German companies, was down 1.8% following the vote.

Merz needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes. He only received 310 votes — well short of the 328 seats held by his coalition, which is also one of the slimmest postwar majorities. Because the vote was held by secret ballot, it was not immediately clear — and might never be known — who had defected from Merz’s camp.

Merz’s coalition is led by his center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. They are joined by the center-left Social Democrats, outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s party. The parties were now to regroup to discuss the next step but it was also unclear how long the process could take.


Merz is seeking to take the helm of the 27-nation European Union’ s most populous member after Scholz’s government collapsed last year and a national election was held in February. Scholz, despite his official farewell on Monday, remains in a caretaker role until a new chancellor takes over.

https://apnews.com/article/germany-government-merz-coalition-98e9007ea41b8bbd36be8d09baefb632

 

1 hour ago, Schulz2.0 said:

Merz did a good job pissing off some of the coalition he needed to get elected in the lead up to the vote. He lost a lot of the goodwill he would have had prior to taking the role.

Merz just elected chancellor. Probably a good thing for Ukraine as long as this doesn't weaken him too significantly.

  • Hook 'Em 2
Posted (edited)
1 hour ago, KYHorn said:

 

Merz just elected chancellor. Probably a good thing for Ukraine as long as this doesn't weaken him too significantly.

He worked with AfD on an immigration bill months ago. There were protests and he went to the German tax authorities looking into the tax free status of some organizations that helped organize the protests. He's not exactly in a great position unless he starts to prove himself to his coalition partners.

Edited by Schulz2.0
  • Hook 'Em 1

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.



×
×
  • Create New...