Germany was long a beacon of stability in Europe, its politics often reassuringly boring. The high drama of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s election left little doubt that those days are over.

As former fringe parties such as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) have surged, the two traditional big-tent parties of the post-war era are increasingly struggling to govern.

Merz’s swearing in on Tuesday came after a roller-coaster ride of events that threw into focus the increasingly volatile nature of politics in the EU’s biggest economy.

After his CDU/CSU bloc won February elections, with the AfD in second place, Merz was forced to build a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) of then chancellor Olaf Scholz.

But, in a surprise upset that rattled Berlin and marred the launch of his “grand coalition”, Merz was defeated in the first round of voting Tuesday, only to scrape by the second time around.

A visibly relieved Merz was then appointed chancellor by President Frank Walter Steinmeier, who drily made light of what he called a “minor delay”.

But the early scrape — celebrated by a jubilant AfD — left a bitter taste on day one of the Merz era, highlighting the fragility of his coalition, a political marriage of convenience.

“Germany and Europe need a strong leader in the German chancellor’s office,” said economist Holger Schmieding of Berenberg Bank. “Merz now looks weaker than expected.”

– Far-right vs ‘people’s parties’ –

Germany, long a model of consensus-based liberal democracy, has had just 10 heads of government in the past 76 years.

By comparison, 31 people have served as Italian prime minister since 1949, some of them more than once.

But, like elsewhere across Europe, Germany’s big “people’s parties” have been bleeding support.

Germany’s traditional workers party the Social Democrats (SPD) scored their worst ever result, of just 16 percent, in the election.

The conservative Christian Democrats (CDU) and their Bavarian allies the CSU won 28 percent, while the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) vanished from the scene.

Germany’s opposition is now made up of the AfD, which scored a record 20 percent, as well as the Greens and the far-left Die Linke.

A more hostile political tone in parliament is a far cry from the staid years under CDU chancellor Angela Merkel, who watched Tuesday’s parliamentary turmoil as a guest.

Critics charge that many of her policies planted the seeds of today’s discord — from neglecting key economic reforms and infrastructure to her open-door policy to migrants.

The AfD, founded during her rule, has railed against immigration and a political establishment it labels the “cartel parties”.

Its surge, especially in Germany’s ex-communist east, has broken a long taboo in a country still seeking to atone for the sins of the Nazi era.

Its leader Alice Weidel, strongly backed by key Trump allies, now dreams of an outright AfD victory in 2029.

– Anxious times –

The anxious times spell a sharp contrast to Merkel’s 16-year reign.

Since then, the Ukraine war has flared, energy prices have surged and China has turned from a major market into a key competitor.

Germany’s economy has been mired in recession for two years, stoking anxieties in what has long been Europe’s industrial powerhouse.

Tighter public finances drove discord within Scholz’s coalition, which deepened when a constitutional court ruling in November 2023 ripped a 60 billion euro ($68 billion) hole in the budget.

A year later, FDP finance minister Christian Lindner opposed loosening strict debt rules and was sacked by Scholz, imploding their alliance.

This kicked off a winter-time election campaign in which a series of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers inflamed an angry immigration debate.

Merz relied on AfD support to pass a parliamentary motion demanding a crackdown. Anger at his breach over a “firewall” to isolate the AfD sparked days of street protests.

The old dispute about the hallowed “debt brake” also reared its head again.

Merz, after vowing to maintain it, changed course after the election to allow massive new spending on defence and infrastructure.

He did so with the support of the outgoing parliament, knowing that the AfD would move to block it in the new one.

Jacob Ross of the German Council on Foreign Relations said the manoeuvre left a “bad taste” with many voters.

“It is not good for confidence in democracy,” he said.

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