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Friedrich Merz needed 316 votes in the 630-seat Bundestag but only secured 310, in a significant blow to the Christian Democrat leader, two and a half months after winning Germany's federal elections.

The conservative Christian Democrat leader said the three-party plan agreed by his party, the Social Democrats and Greens involved:

The rift comes in the aftermath of several incidents that sparked Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany’s conservative Christian Democrat party and very likely the country’s next chancellor, to say that Europe has to build up its own independent defense because the United States is no longer a reliable guarantor of the continent’s security.

He will end his Christian Democrat party's campaign with a rally in Munich, while his rivals will make a final appeal in a TV "speed-dating" programme with voters.

Von der Leyen’s European People’s Party, a largely Christian Democrat group, is the legislature’s biggest and bound to be the coalition kingmaker after the elections.