Agency Report –
Two and a half months after Germany’s parliamentary election, conservative leader Friedrich Merz is due to be elected as the country’s next chancellor on May 6, parliament said on Monday.
Julia Klöckner, the newly elected president of the Bundestag, as Germany’s lower house of parliament is known, is making preparations for lawmakers to vote on Merz’s appointment on that day, it said.
However, for the vote to go ahead, Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) still need to approve a coalition deal that was struck after weeks of negotiations last week.
The CDU’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), has already approved the deal.
The CDU is set to vote on the agreement at a party conference on April 28, while an SPD membership vote on the 144-page deal is due to kick off on Tuesday.
If Merz is elected chancellor on May 6, his Cabinet is expected to be sworn in on the same day.
This means the new government could get to work exactly six months after the collapse of the centre-left coalition led by outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
