“The whole of Europe, perhaps even the whole world, is watching this second round of elections,” Jens Spahn, the head of the center-right Union bloc in the German parliament, said before the final vote. Merz had been expected to easily win the vote to become Germany’s 10th chancellor since World War II, but the first ballot in the lower house of parliament unexpectedly left him with 310 votes — well short of the 328 seats held by his coalition. The decision by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution prompted blowback from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Vance over the weekend.
Published at: 2025-05-06 21:47:04
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