Bundestag confirmed Friedrich Merz as Germany's new chancellor in a successful second vote after he unexpectedly lost an initial round earlier on Tuesday. Merz won 325 votes in favour — higher than the 316 required.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz has been elected as new chancellor in the second round of voting in the Bundestag, the lower house of the German parliament. Merz's failure to win enough support earlier today was the first time in Germany's postwar history that a candidate missed a majority in the first round of voting.

For the first time since the founding of the Federal Republic, two rounds of voting were necessary to elect a chancellor. After failing to secure an absolute majority in the first round on Tuesday, the president of the Christian Democratic Union was finally installed.