To protest Willy Brandt’s conciliatory Ostpolitik (policies toward the East), several Bundestag delegates from the FDP left the governing social-liberal coalition and joined the opposition CDU/CSU group. After this shift, the leadership of the CDU/CSU believed that it had enough support for a successful vote of no confidence in the Bundestag. The motion was narrowly defeated, however: instead of the required 249 delegates, only 247 cast votes of no confidence. After the motion failed, friends and party supporters congratulated the newly confirmed chancellor.