Merz elected German chancellor after initial debacle

German conservative leader Friedrich Merz was elected chancellor by parliament on Tuesday in a second round of voting after a humiliating and unprecedented defeat on the first attempt, getting his coalition government off to a weak start, reports reuters.

Merz, 69, who led his conservatives to a federal election victory in February and has signed a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), won 325 votes, nine more than needed for an absolute majority, in the secret ballot.

He had secured just 310 votes in the first round of voting, meaning at least 18 coalition lawmakers failed to back him.

After the vote, he headed to the nearby Bellevue Palace to be formally nominated by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Later, he will return to the historic Reichstag building in the heart of Berlin to take the oath of office to become Germany's 10th chancellor since the end of World War Two.

Merz is under heavy pressure to show German leadership after the implosion last November of outgoing SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz's three-way coalition left a political vacuum at the heart of Europe even as it faced a myriad of crises.

A global trade war sparked by U.S. President Donald Trump's sweeping import tariffs is threatening a third year of downturn in Europe's largest economy, which has already had to grapple with the end of cheap Russian gas since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and growing rivalry from China.

Meanwhile, Trump has threatened not to come to the aid of the NATO alliance, prompting even transatlanticist Merz to question the reliability of the United States as a top security ally and urge Europe to improve its ability to defend itself._Agencies.