German parliament expected to meet May 6 to elect Friedrich Merz as the new chancellor

BERLIN — The German parliament plans to meet on May 6 to elect Friedrich Merz as the country's next leader, if all the parties in his proposed government approve a coalition agreement reached last week.

Parliament's lower house, the Bundestag, said Monday that Speaker Julia Klöckner is preparing to call the session early next month.

Merz will need a majority of all members of the house to be elected as post-World War II Germany's 10th chancellor, succeeding Olaf Scholz. The proposed coalition of his center-right Christian Democratic Union; its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union; and Scholz's center-left Social Democrats has a relatively modest majority, with 328 of the 630 seats.

Since no party wants to work with the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany, which finished second in Germany's election in February, no other plausible combination of governing parties has a parliamentary majority.

There are still two hurdles to clear before parliament can vote. The biggest is a ballot of the Social Democrats' membership on the coalition agreement, which starts on Tuesday and ends on April 29. The CDU also must approve the accord at a party convention set for April 28, while the CSU's leadership already approved it last week.

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.

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

Party co-leader Lars Klingbeil said Sunday he is confident that a majority of members will say it's right for the Social Democrats to “take responsibility for Germany.”

“There are always alternatives. ... One alternative is new elections, one alternative is perhaps a minority government,” Klingbeil told ARD television. But in today's troubled times, “Germany must be a place of stability,” he added. “For that, we need a stable democratic government, and we have presented a sensible coalition agreement for that.”