Bangladesh, May 7 -- In an extraordinary day of political turbulence in Berlin, Friedrich Merz, the long-time leader of Germanys Christian Democratic Union (CDU), has finally secured election as German Chancellor after a tense second vote in the Bundestag on May 1. His road to victory was anything but smooth, marking an unprecedented stumble in Germanys post-war democratic history.

Earlier in the day, Merz had unexpectedly failed to meet the required 316-vote threshold by a margin of six votes, throwing the countrys political establishment into disarray. In a rapid series of backdoor negotiations, emergency meetings, and last-minute appeals to party loyalty, Merz and his allies managed to turn the tide just hours later. In the second rou...