Friedrich Merz’s party approves German coalition agreement, bringing him closer to the chancellery

BERLIN (AP) — German election winner Friedrich Merz’s party on Monday approved an agreement to form a coalition government with a center-left rival, bringing him closer to the helm of a leading European power as it grapples with a stagnant economy, the Trump administration’s trade policy and the war in Ukraine.

Delegates at a convention of Merz’s center-right Christian Democratic Union party approved the agreement that was reached earlier this month. German news agency dpa reported that the exact vote count was not released Monday.

The would-be coalition aims to spur economic growth, ramp up defense spending, take a tougher approach to migration and catch up on long-neglected modernization for the 27-nation European Union’s most populous member.

The deal still has a bigger hurdle to clear before parliament can meet to elect Merz. The junior partners in the prospective coalition, the center-left Social Democrats of outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz, put the agreement to the ballot of their entire 358,000-plus membership. The results are expected on Wednesday.

There is some resistance in the Social Democrats’ ranks after the party finished third in Germany’s election in February with its worst postwar result in a national parliamentary election. The party’s youth wing has come out against the deal.

The CDU is the dominant party in a two-party conservative bloc known as the Union. Its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, already approved the deal.

If the Social Democrats’ members approve the deal, the lower house of the German parliament will meet May 6 to elect Merz as chancellor. In that vote, Merz will need a majority of all members of the house to be elected as post-World War II Germany’s 10th chancellor, succeeding Scholz.

The proposed coalition has a relatively modest majority, with 328 of the Bundestag’s 630 seats.

Merz’s party also on Monday announced its proposed government team, including senior lawmaker Johann Wadephul as foreign minister — a position the CDU last held in the 1960s.