Friedrich Merz Failed To Raup The Majority Of The Vote In The First Round Of The German Chancellor Election

JAKARTA - Germany's conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed to get the votes of the majority of parliament needed to be chancellor in the first round of the vote on Tuesday, which was an unexpected setback for his new coalition with the centre-left Social Democratic Party.

Merz (69) who led the conservative CDU/CSU party to win the federal election in February. Since then he has secured a coalition agreement with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

However, in today's election he only won 310 votes in the lower house of parliament, Bundestag President Julia Kloeckner said, while securing the majority votes required 316 votes.

Kloeckner said he interrupted parliamentary sessions so parliamentary groups could consult on how to proceed.

The lower house of parliament, or the Bundestag, now has 14 days to elect Merz or any other chancellor candidate with an absolute majority vote and can try another vote on Tuesday.

Merz's conservative party won the national election in February with 28.5 percent of the vote, but needed at least one partner to form a majority government.

On Monday, they signed a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democratic Party, which only garnered 16.4 percent of the vote, their worst result in Germany's postwar history.