Friedrich Merz became chancellor today, but in neither the conventional nor the ideal way.

After Germany’s federal elections on 23 February 2025, the winning Conservatives (CDU/CSU) entered coalition talks with the Social Democrats to form a government—everything was in place.

Yesterday, the parties signed the coalition agreement. Last night, Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat who had served as Germany’s chancellor since 2021, bade farewell. By morning, radio stations and newspapers were reporting that Friedrich Merz would be sworn in as chancellor around 10 a.m.

But events took a different—and historic—turn.

What happened?

The election of a chancellor by parliament, once a coalition is secured, is usually a mere formality. Of course, it remains a pivotal and celebratory moment—a ritual of democracy.

Yet the signing of the coalition agreement and the announcement of cabinet posts had made it clear to everyone: this would be the new government. Friedrich Merz was the Conservatives’ candidate for chancellor; it’s part of the unwritten rules that the party with the most seats in parliament claims the post.

But those rules were broken: Friedrich Merz failed to secure the required absolute majority in parliament. Never before has a chancellor needed more than one round of voting. It’s an unprecedented and disastrous start for the new government.

Merz needed 316 votes; the Bundestag has 630 members in total. The coalition of Conservatives and Social Democrats holds 328 seats. Yet he received only 310.

Not only did he fall six votes short of the majority, but 18 members of his own coalition withheld their support. Since the vote was secret, we’ll never know who they were—but it’s a rare and pointed act of defiance.

After the initial shock, the parties agreed to hold a second round of voting in the afternoon. This time, Merz secured the majority.

What’s the problem?

Now one might ask: what’s the issue? He’s chancellor in the end. Why worry that it took a second round?

The issue is that this marks a disastrous start for the new chancellorship and government. But things hadn’t been going smoothly from the beginning anyway.

Despite promising throughout the campaign that he would not incur any new debt as chancellor, Merz made a dramatic U-turn just days after the election. Together with the Social Democrats—already negotiating a coalition—and the Green Party, he used the outgoing parliament to pass a debt package of historic proportions: five hundred billion euros for infrastructure, and a loosening of the so-called debt brake to allow Germany to invest in defense—with virtually no restrictions on borrowing.

Many called it a betrayal of public trust, including members of Merz’s own Conservative party. It’s entirely possible that the missing votes came from within the Conservative ranks themselves.

Beyond his handling of the debt issue, Merz is also unpopular for his rhetoric, which has often fed into populist narratives and sparked scandals during his years as opposition leader in parliament. Notably, he once accused Ukrainian refugees of “welfare tourism”, claiming they were exploiting Germany’s welfare system.

Then, in January—just weeks before the election—he made headlines again by voting alongside the far-right AfD for a “Five-Point Plan” on migration. The motion, filled with anti-immigration rhetoric, was a reaction to a knife attack by a mentally ill Afghan man that left a child and an adult dead in a park.

All this has left Merz deeply unpopular—not only among Social Democrats but also within parts of his own party and the broader public. He enters office as one of the least popular chancellors at the start of a term.

Yet after six months without a government—following the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s coalition of Social Democrats, Liberals, and Greens in November—Germany, its faltering economy, and Europe had been waiting for Berlin to return to the stage and offer stability.

That stability was supposed to begin today. But it’s off to a shaky start. It remains to be seen what impact this will have on the new government—now officially led, after delay, by Chancellor Friedrich Merz.