The sweat was dripping off Friedrich Merz after the frontrunner to become Germany’s next chancellor saw his bid to outflank an ascendant far right spectacularly backfire in the Bundestag.

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.

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.