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Or did the forthright Merz - and ambitious SPD Vice-Chancellor Lars Klingbeil - struggle to rally their own ranks?

Following February's election, the AfD is the main opposition party and pounced on events as evidence of the fundamental weaknesses within a coalition made up of the centre-right CDU/CSU parties and centre-left SPD.

Merz's defeat is seen by political commentators as a humiliation, probably inflicted by members of the Social Democrat SPD, which signed a coalition deal with his conservatives on Monday.

Not everyone in the SPD is happy with the deal, but the historic nature of Merz's failure will be difficult for him to move on from.

But the CDU, CSU and SPD coalition have a narrow majority with 328 seats – just a dozen more than the minimum required.