Mr. Merz needed two rounds of voting to become chancellor after a surprising defeat in Parliament hours earlier that threatened to hobble his new government.

Friedrich Merz succeeded in his bid to become the next German chancellor during a second vote in parliament, hours after he suffered a historic defeat in the first round.

In Germany, Friedrich Merz was elected as chancellor Tuesday in a second round of parliamentary voting, just hours after he failed to clinch the ballot in the first round — a first in postwar Germany.