Friedrich Merz failed in his first attempt to become Chancellor in the Bundestag.

After lengthy discussions, parliamentary groups agreed on a second round of voting.

Merz fell six votes short of a majority in the first election. Bild describes it as “a historic defeat”.

The defeat in the first vote is being referred to as an embarrassment for the new prime minister. It is the first time this has happened in post-war Germany.

“The fact that Merz was not elected in the first round casts a dark shadow over the future of the coalition,” political scientist Philipp Köker of the University of Hanover told Reuters news agency (NTB-Reuters-DPA)

.

CDU general Carsten Linnemann initially ruled out a new round of elections on Tuesday, but the Bundestag decided otherwise.

At 15:59, WELT reports that the counting of the votes is underway and will be completed around 16:20.

Now it’s clear: Merz becomes Germany’s new Chancellor, with 325 votes to 289. This brings the whole thing to “a happy ending”, writes Bild.

The German population is probably divided on this issue.