(6 May 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Berlin, Germany – 6 May 2025
1. Various of ministers arriving for first cabinet meeting with new Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU), including Baerbel Bas (SPD), Federal Minister of Labor and Social Affairs, Katherina Reiche (CDU), Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Energy, Karsten Wildberger (non-party), Federal Minister for Digitalization and State Modernization, Patrick Schnieder (CDU), Federal Minister of Transport, Nina Warken (M, CDU), Federal Minister of Health
2. Close of Boris Pistorius (SPD), Federal Minister of Defense talking with Verena Hubertz (SPD), Federal Minister of Housing, Urban Development and Building
3. Mid of Hubertz talking with ministers
4. Close of Merz talking with Alexander Dobrindt (CSU), centerm Minister of the Interior
5. Various of Merz and ministers taking their seats for meeting
6. Wide of table, ministers posing for photos
STORYLINE:
Germany’s new Chancellor Friedrich Merz presided over his first cabinet meeting on Tuesday in Berlin.
Conservative leader Friedrich Merz was elected in a second ballot by lawmakers as post-World War II Germany’s 10th chancellor on Tuesday — hours after he failed to win the first round in parliament in a historic defeat.
Merz, 69, who succeeds Olaf Scholz, has vowed to prioritize European unity and the continent’s security as it grapples with the new Trump administration and Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Merz’s two-party Union bloc emerged as the strongest force from Germany’s election on Feb. 23.
He then turned to the Social Democrats, Scholz’s center-left party, to put together a coalition with a parliamentary majority.
He has already pushed through plans to enable higher defense spending, and faced more pressure to finish the deal after U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement of sweeping tariffs created significant market disruption.
On Tuesday, Merz needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in parliament but only got 310 in the first round.
Because it was a secret ballot, it was not immediately clear — and might never be known — who defected from Merz’s camp. In the second round he received 325 votes.
As chancellor, Merz will face the challenge of helping to fill a leadership vacuum and craft a united response to recent U.S. policy shifts that have strained the trans-Atlantic alliance.
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