"This is like a thunderbolt for all of Germany"

Former Green MP Volker Beck (64) wrote on X that "some people probably want to see the republic burn".

He harshly attacked the coalition MPs who did not vote for Merz.

"It is irresponsible when democratic representatives do not recognize the seriousness of the situation," he wrote.

• Shock in Germany: Merz was not elected chancellor

Jürgen Hart, a foreign policy expert at the CDU, also tweeted indignantly.

"Those in the coalition who did not vote for Friedrich Merz must ask themselves whose business they are doing. We have a parliamentary group meeting at 10:30," he wrote.

Green Party politician Renate Künast assessed that Merz is "very weakened" after today's failure in the Bundestag.

She described it as an "electoral debacle".

"This is like a thunderbolt for the whole of Germany," she told the Phoenix television station.