Incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suffered an embarrassing setback when he fell short of a majority in an initial vote in the lower house of parliament, potentially delaying his swearing-in as head of government due to take place later on Tuesday.
On a roll downhill, maybe.
If the AfD votes for Merz in the second round, the parlament will probably dissolve into chaos very quickly.
I don‘t have a crystal ball but I don‘t think that will happen because of the chance it could really enable Merz and split the AfD more than it splits the rest. It could show that Merz has the Bundestag under control after all and that‘s the last thing the AfD needs right now.
In my opinion it would show the opposite.
All parties except for the AfD would think he did a secret deal with them.
Because he already did such a deal with the AfD against the last administration.
So he’d be technically chancellor, the AfD would applaud and laugh sarcastically, and he’d have lost the trust of all his allies.
I don’t think that this will happen. The Afd was already propagandising heavily against the CDU and Merz, it wouldn’t fit their narrative.
Edit: Afd just said they’ll vote for Merz. Guess I was wrong.
And secret deals with Merz make the AfD seem reliable, trustworthy and strong, how? If anything that would strengthen the left.
The AfD doesn’t need to seem reliable, trustworthy and strong.
Like Trump, they thrive on chaos and a loss of trust in democracy itself.
Well I guess now we can say almost certainly that none of them voted for him the second time around either which was predictable.