Friedrich Merz wins on second ballot to become German chancellor, hours after defeat in first vote

(6 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:

++PRELIMINARY SCRIPT++

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin, Germany – 6 May 2025
1. Wide of German parliament session as lawmakers gather for second vote
2. Various of Christian Democratic Union leader Friedrich Merz with lawmakers
3. Zoom out of outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz taking seat
4. Mid of Merz
5. Wide of parliament session
6. Mid of Julia Klöckner, German parliament president, addressing parliament
7. Mid of Merz greeting Scholz
8. Various of Merz walking to vote
9. Zoom in on lawmakers voting
10. Mid of media before pan to lawmakers voting
11. Alternative for Germany (AfD) party leaders leaving after voting ++JUMPCUT++
12. Merz casting his vote
13. Merz leaving after voting
14. Wide of Scholz, Merz and Jens Spahn, incoming head of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)/Christian Social Union (CSU) parliament group, walking to seats in parliament building
15. Wide of German Bundestag’s emblem
16. SOUNDBITE (German) Julia Klöckner, German parliament president:
"The Member of Parliament Friedrich Merz has achieved the required majority of at least 316 votes. He has been elected Chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany in accordance with Article 63(2) of the Basic Law.”
17. Zoom in on Scholz shaking hand with Merz
18. Various of lawmakers congratulating Merz
STORYLINE:
Friedrich Merz succeeded Tuesday in his bid to become the next German chancellor during a second vote in parliament, hours after he suffered a historic defeat in the first round.

The conservative leader had been expected to smoothly win the vote to become Germany’s 10th chancellor since World War II. No other postwar candidate for chancellor has failed to win on the first ballot.

Merz received 325 votes in the second ballot.

He needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes but only received 310 in the first round — well short of the 328 seats held by his coalition.

Because the votes were secret ballots, it was not immediately clear — and might never be known — who had defected from Merz’s camp.

Merz’s coalition is led by his centre-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union. They are joined by the centre-left Social Democrats led by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who lost the national election in February.

Germany, the most populous member state of the 27-nation European Union, has the continent’s biggest economy and serves as a diplomatic heavyweight.

The new chancellor’s in-tray would include the war in Ukraine and the Trump administration’s confrontational trade policy on top of domestic issues, such as the rise of a far-right, anti-immigrant party.

AP video by Fanny Bordersen and Chris Stern

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