erz needed 316 votes out of 630 to secure the chancellorship but received only 310, falling short of a majority despite his coalition holding 328 seats. *Because the vote was conducted by secret ballot, the identity of those within his own party who defected remains unknown.
There are two obvious reasons why the perception of Merz’s trustworthiness might have fallen in the past few months. In January, Merz broke his own word when he became the first CDU leader to pass a motion through the Bundestag with the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), whole factions of which are deemed by intelligence agencies to be a threat to Germany’s democratic order.
For CDU supporters, however, that seemed like a less-egregious U-turn than the one Merz performed a few weeks later: In March, the party leader agreed a debt brake reform with the SPD and the Greens that paved the way for €1 trillion ($1.14 trillion) in new loans, something he had expressly ruled out throughout the election campaign.
Merz has not picked the most fortunate moment in history: In traditional political parlance, a coalition of the CDU/CSU and SPD is called a “grand coalition,” because for many decades these two parties represented an overwhelming majority of Germany’s voters (sometimes well over 80%). In the fragmented landscape of 2025, in which parties have splintered and splintered again over the past 20 years, the two big centrist parties can only claim to represent 45% of voters, going by the February election results.
The German electorate is fragmented.
Germany is going through a tough economic situation. More monies are required due to fast aging population and new increased military spending.
The current government may not last but a replacement government still has same problems.