The Bundestag rejected the CDU/CSU bill on limiting immigration. The media noted that this was a painful defeat for Friedrich Merz, who aimed to gain the support of the conservative electorate before the elections with this bill.

Despite the defeat on Friday in the German parliament of his proposed immigration law, conservative leader Friedrich Merz sees himself and his faction in a stronger position. "I also see myself very much strengthened by what we in the faction decided this week,

With cheers of surprise and shocked faces, Bundestag MPs narrowly rejected a migration bill on Friday pushed by the centre-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and backed by the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD).

An immigration bill from Germany's conservative election frontrunner Friedrich Merz and backed controversially by the far-right AfD has failed to make it through German parliament.

The bill’s defeat — after Merz secured the passage of a similar motion on Wednesday — suggests that some of his own parliamentary group voted against the bill. All of which puts him in an uncomfortable position little more than three weeks from an election that has looked like his to lose.

Merz, leader of the Christian Democrats, had sought to restrict immigration rules with the support of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The bill fell short of 12 votes on Friday. Twelve MPs from Merz’s parliamentary group were absent.

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel has issued rare public criticism of her successor as the country’s center-right leader, the front-runner in Germany’s election next month, for putting to parliament proposals for tough new migration rules that only passed with the help of a far-right party.

Friedrich Merz’s hard-line shift on migration is a calculated gambit by the German conservative leader to neutralize the far right and deliver a breakthrough with wavering voters, according to people familiar with his thinking.