Shock in Germany: Merz was not elected chancellor

It is the sudden defeat of his new coalition with the center-left Social Democrats.

According to Bild, it has never happened before that the appointed chancellor, after successful coalition negotiations, was not elected in the first round of voting.

The lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, now has 14 days to choose Friedrich Merz or another candidate for chancellor with an absolute majority, reports Reuters.

Merz's conservative CDU-CSU bloc won national elections in February, but with 28.5 percent of the vote, requiring at least one coalition partner.

Merz agreed to form a coalition with the Social Democrats, who won only 16.4 percent, their worst result in Germany's post-war history.