BERLIN — Friedrich Merz will be German chancellor after winning a vote in the Bundestag Tuesday afternoon, following an embarrassing initial failure that plunged Berlin into political turmoil.
The conservative leader, who has been weakened by the unprecedented first round setback, secured 325 votes in the dramatic second round — just above the 316 needed to win.
The 69-year-old now takes the helm of a fragile coalition between the conservative bloc and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). The coalition will hold one of the slimmest parliamentary majorities since World War II, with just 52 percent of seats.
The rare second vote (no presumed German chancellor had failed to be voted through by the Bundestag after striking a coalition agreement in the country’s postwar history) was made possible after four factions — including the Greens and the Left — agreed to bypass standard procedural delays, allowing parliament to reconvene just hours after the shock failure.
Merz’s eventual success followed intense intra-party pressure and urgent closed-door meetings into the afternoon.
This story is being updated.
