Friedrich Merz becomes Germany’s new chancellor – the hard way.

Tuesday was some kind of rollercoaster for Friedrich Merz, leader of Germany’s conservative CDU/CSU party alliance.

After unexpectedly failing to secure enough Bundestag votes to become chancellor on the first try – a first in Germany’s postwar history – he squeaked through by a margin of nine votes in the second round.

Merz now takes power atop a grand establishment coalition between his center-right CDU/CSU and its historical center-left rivals, the Social Democrats.

Viel Glück, Friedrich.The new boss of the EU’s most populous and powerful country has a doozy of a to-do list:

• Revive a moribund, outdated economy (amid a deepening trade war with the US)
• Boost defense spending amid doubts about Washington’s commitment to NATO
• Hold together a unified EU position on Ukraine
• Head off the surging popularity of the far right, anti-establishment AfD, which placed second in the February election.

The first round hiccup makes all of this harder: How solid is Merz’s coalition? It officially controls 328 of the Bundestag’s 630 seats, but in the first round of the secret ballot, Merz got only 310 votes. There are, it seems, possible defectors in the ranks…