Germany In Crisis Part 4: Wanderers And Seekers
Dresden, May 6 — Friedrich Merz barely managed to assume power Tuesday as the Federal Republic’s 10th chancellor, having fallen six votes short of the number he needed when the first Bundestag ballots were counted in a morning vote.
Berlin was reeling for most of the day as it faced a political impasse unprecedented in postwar German history. A second ballot, held hurriedly later in the afternoon, got Merz over the line by a margin of nine votes. While Bundestag members vote secretly, the numbers indicate that some members of his new coalition betrayed him. Among the German analysts with whom I spoke today, the interesting question now is how long Merz will manage to remain as chancellor.