Merz becomes Germany's new chancellor after surviving historic vote failure

Friedrich Merz has become Germany's new chancellor after winning a second vote in the country's parliament.

He unexpectedly failed in the first parliamentary ballot on Tuesday morning - the first time a chancellor has failed to be elected at the first attempt since the Second World War. Initially, needing a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a secret ballot, he received 310 - falling short by just six votes.

On the second ballot he managed 325. It means Mr Merz, the leader of the country's CDU/CSU conservatives, has become the 10th chancellor since the end of the Second World War.

He had been expected to win comfortably after securing a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD). It meant at least 18 coalition MPs failed to back him in the first round of voting.

Announcing the second vote, Jens Spahn, the head of the Union bloc in parliament, said: "The whole of Europe, perhaps even the whole world, is watching this second round of elections." Earlier, the leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, Alice Weidel, said on X that Mr Merz's failure to secure a majority in the first round showed the "weak foundation" on which his coalition was built, adding that it had been "voted out by the voters". Mr Merz, 69, succeeds Olaf Scholz and has vowed to prioritise European unity and the continent's security.

His in-tray includes the Ukraine war and global tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump. Volodymyr Zelenskyy sent congratulations to Mr Merz and wished him "every success".

The Ukrainian president added that the future of Europe was "at stake" and security will "depend on our unity". Mr Merz will also have to decide what to do about the AfD, which mainstream parties have refused to work with.

A "firewall" against collaborating with strongly right-wing parties has been in place since the end of the war. During federal elections in late February, the AfD scored its best-ever result while Olaf Scholz's SPD dropped to about 16%.

The AfD is the second largest party in the lower house of the Bundestag and was officially designated as extremist last week by Germany's domestic spy agency..