Friedrich Merz was not elected as the new Chancellor of Germany

In Germany, the first round of elections for the new chancellor took place on May 6. Friedrich Merz, leader of the CDU/CSU bloc, failed to win a majority of the votes. 

This is reported by UNN with reference to Spiegel and Tagesschau.

CDU leader Merz failed to win a majority of votes in the first round of the chancellorship election

Merz lacked 6 votes to be elected.

310 deputies voted for Merz, and 307 voted against. 316 votes "for" would have been required for his election

According to media reports, after the failed elections, the Bundestag session was initially postponed without announcing a further round of voting. Whether a new attempt will be made and when is still unclear

The failed elections highlight the possible tension in the CDU/CSU and SPD coalition, which had previously agreed on Friedrich Merz as its joint candidate

Reference

Merz is a well-known supporter of strengthening Europe's defense capabilities and supports Germany's active role in NATO. Regarding Ukraine, Merz advocates for greater military assistance, including the supply of Taurus missiles, despite threats from Russia. The Russian authorities stated that if Ukraine uses these missiles to attack Russian targets, they will consider it as Germany's participation in this war.

During his trip to Kyiv on December 9, 2024, a week before the Bundestag vote on a vote of no confidence in Scholz, Merz met with Zelenskyy, where he promised that if he won the election, he would expand support for Ukraine and fundamentally change Berlin's policy on blocking its accession to NATO. He also openly stated that he was ready to resolve the issue of transferring missiles to Ukraine.

Our faction clearly advocates that the Ukrainian army should be able to hit military targets from which aggression against your state is carried out. And the current restrictions on the range of strikes force you to fight as if with one hand behind your back

Another visit by Merz to Ukraine took place in May 2022. During a trip to Kyiv, he inspected the suburbs of the capital, destroyed by Russian shelling, and was deeply impressed by what he saw.

This is a barbaric war against the civilian population: women, children, the elderly. I am shocked to the depths of my soul

Let us remind you

Earlier, UNN wrote that the likely new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced the names of the first candidates from his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party for the posts of ministers of the new Cabinet of Ministers.