BERLIN — German lawmakers voted to appoint three judges to the country’s highest court on Thursday in a series of high-stakes ballots that tested the cohesion of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s coalition government.

“Today has been a very, very important day for democracy in this country, and also for the constitution,” said Matthias Miersch, the general secretary of the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

Thursday’s votes came months after conservative and left-leaning members of Merz’s government clashed over the appointment of a judge to Germany’s top court, raising questions about the viability of the ideologically divergent coalition. At the time, members of Merz’s conservative bloc refused to support Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf, a legal expert nominated by their coalition partners in the SPD, resulting in a postponement of the vote.

The fight over Brosius-Gersdorf came after questionable allegations of plagiarism surfaced against her and amid what many viewed as a smear campaign aimed at discrediting the legal expert over her views on abortion. Brosius-Gersdorf withdrew her candidacy last month, writing in an open letter that she wanted to prevent “the coalition dispute over the selection of judges from escalating and setting in motion a development whose effects on democracy are unforeseeable.”

The conflict over Brosius-Gersdorf underscored not only emerging divides inside the coalition, but its relative fragility given the government’s weak parliamentary majority and the rise of radical parties. The popularity of far-right Alternative for Germany, now the second-biggest party in Germany’s Bundestag, means Merz’s centrist coalition controls only 52 percent of parliamentary seats, making it particularly vulnerable to even small disputes and defections within the rank and file.

Members of Merz’s government now hope that, with the votes to appoint three top court judges behind them, the coalition will be able to set aside the highly emotional dispute and begin to address a series of pressing economic and pension reforms.

“Today’s vote brings an end to a period of uncertainty,” said Jens Spahn, leader of the conservative faction in the Bundestag. “We as a coalition, the conservatives and the SPD, have come through the summer recess in good shape. We have found our footing.”

Rasmus Buchsteiner and Hans von der Burchard contributed to this report.