Merz’s setback complicates Germany’s attempt to lead in Europe.
May 6, 2025, 6:46 a.m. ET An election campaign poster for Friedrich Merz in western Germany this year. Credit…Kirill Kudryavtsev/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Before he returned to politics, won a national election and became the first would-be chancellor in modern German history to fail to win the job on the first ballot in Parliament,…