{"id":48637,"date":"2025-05-06T11:05:39","date_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:05:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/germany-chancellor-live-updates-merz-wins-second-vote-to-become-germanys-leader\/06\/05\/2025\/"},"modified":"2025-05-06T11:05:39","modified_gmt":"2025-05-06T15:05:39","slug":"germany-chancellor-live-updates-merz-wins-second-vote-to-become-germanys-leader","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newssprinters.com\/index.php\/world\/germany-chancellor-live-updates-merz-wins-second-vote-to-become-germanys-leader\/06\/05\/2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Germany Chancellor Live Updates: Merz Wins Second Vote to Become Germany’s Leader"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a>\"Christopher<\/a><\/p>\n
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An election campaign poster for Friedrich Merz in western Germany this year. <\/span>Credit…<\/span>Kirill Kudryavtsev\/Agence France-Presse \u2014 Getty Images<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Before he returned to politics, won a national election and became the first would-be chancellor in modern German history to fail to win the job on the first ballot in Parliament, Friedrich Merz accepted an invitation to a gathering of the French Foreign Legion in Corsica.<\/p>\n

At the last moment, the organizers asked him to arrive on the parade ground not by road or rail, but by parachute. Mr. Merz, then a corporate lawyer, had never jumped out of a plane. But a fellow attendee recalled recently that Mr. Merz did not hesitate. He made the jump \u2014 successfully, but with a bit of a rough landing.<\/p>\n

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It is not yet clear if Mr. Merz\u2019s more recent rough landing \u2014 his bid to become Germany\u2019s next chancellor \u2014 is something more dire. After requiring two rounds of voting in Parliament, he will become Germany\u2019s next leader. But he will do so at a pivotal time for the nation\u2019s economy, security and role in Europe.<\/p>\n

The inability to secure the votes he needed Tuesday to become chancellor on the first vote is an ominous sign for Mr. Merz, as he attempts to wrangle lawmakers to confront crises at home and abroad, while holding off a surge from the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD.<\/p>\n

Mr. Merz is a product of the Sauerland in Germany\u2019s wealthy west, a region that defines his politics and persona. During his campaign, he ran on the slogan \u201cMore Sauerland for Germany,\u201d evoking the region\u2019s image as a heartland of the country.<\/p>\n

Supporters call him an agile politician with the potential to deliver on the big issues worrying the German public: growth, defense, immigration.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think he\u2019s extremely well prepared and very deep and thoughtful,\u201d said John P. Schmitz, a deputy White House counsel under George H.W. Bush. Mr. Schmitz helped hire Mr. Merz to work in the German offices of the Chicago law firm Mayer Brown and jumped out of the plane in Corsica with Mr. Merz around 2005.<\/p>\n

But others say Mr. Merz struggles to plan more than one step ahead, leading him to break promises \u2014 and leaving him vulnerable to surprise setbacks like the vote Tuesday.<\/p>\n

His about-faces on spending and migration have alienated many of his base conservative voters. And Mr. Merz and his party have sagged in the polls since the election, allowing the AfD to draw even with them in some surveys. Even before his parliamentary stumble on Tuesday, he had one of the lowest approval ratings of any German leader in the modern era.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s this old saying: \u2018Whatever you do, act wisely and consider the end,\u2019\u201d said Ruprecht Polenz, a former secretary general of Mr. Merz\u2019s party. \u201cThis thinking,\u201d he added, \u201cI feel is not his main strength.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more about Mr. Merz, his background and his approach to politics in our profile of him<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n