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.

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's unprecedented first-round failure in the vote to make him German chancellor on Tuesday gave a boost to the far-right AfD, which just days ago was reeling from being officially labelled an extremist threat to democracy.