Incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered an embarrassing setback when he fell short of a majority in an initial vote in the lower house of parliament, potentially delaying his swearing-in as head of government due to take place later on Tuesday.
For more context:
Both parties together have a majority and coaltion talks have already been done. If every single party member votes yes, this should be no problem. In theory.
This result shows how massively unpopular Merz really is, going down in history as a failure BEFORE he even got a chance to fuck up at his actual job.
He will probably be voted in during the second (or even third) round, but this may sow discontent and suspicion in the parties. The vote was anonymous, so you cant easily figure out who broke the line, potentially leading to poisoning the coalition.
Either way, we now have Friedrich “Zweite Wahl” Merz
Edit: Spelling
First AfD is officially acknowledged of being far right extremist now this? Dare I say we‘re on a roll after a really shitty election?
On a roll downhill, maybe.
If the AfD votes for Merz in the second round, the parlament will probably dissolve into chaos very quickly.I don‘t have a crystal ball but I don‘t think that will happen because of the chance it could really enable Merz and split the AfD more than it splits the rest. It could show that Merz has the Bundestag under control after all and that‘s the last thing the AfD needs right now.
In my opinion it would show the opposite.
All parties except for the AfD would think he did a secret deal with them.
Because he already did such a deal with the AfD against the last administration.
So he’d be technically chancellor, the AfD would applaud and laugh sarcastically, and he’d have lost the trust of all his allies.I don’t think that this will happen. The Afd was already propagandising heavily against the CDU and Merz, it wouldn’t fit their narrative.
Edit: Afd just said they’ll vote for Merz. Guess I was wrong.
And secret deals with Merz make the AfD seem reliable, trustworthy and strong, how? If anything that would strengthen the left.
The AfD doesn’t need to seem reliable, trustworthy and strong.
Like Trump, they thrive on chaos and a loss of trust in democracy itself.Well I guess now we can say almost certainly that none of them voted for him the second time around either which was predictable.
Semi-related, but maybe interesting.
Tuesday’s vote was held on the eve of the 80th anniversary of Germany’s unconditional surrender in World War II. The ballots are secret and cast in the restored Reichstag.
Cringe
