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.

Hours after he suffered a historic defeat, Friedrich Merz was elected as German chancellor on Tuesday. The leader of the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had been widely expected to win the vote to become the country's 10th chancellor since World War II.

Merz' appointment ends six months of political deadlock in the country after the collapse of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government in November.