Merz elected German chancellor after surprise setback

BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Germany’s conservative leader Friedrich Merz was due to travel to Paris and Warsaw on Wednesday after winning a nail-biting second parliamentary vote to become chancellor following a first-round setback.

Merz, 69, scored an absolute majority of 325 to 289 in the second secret vote in the lower house of parliament to become the new leader of Europe’s biggest economy.

But his win was bittersweet after the initial defeat pointed to rumblings of discontent within his coalition.

Merz takes over at the helm of a coalition between his CDU/CSU alliance and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) of outgoing chancellor Olaf Scholz.

President Frank-Walter Steinmeier appointed Merz as post-war Germany’s 10th chancellor.

“I accept this responsibility with humility but also with determination and confidence,” Merz later said.

“It is good that Germany now has a federal government with a parliamentary majority again,” he added, pledging his centrist coalition would be able to tackle national concerns, from the economy to immigration.

In an interview with news channel NTV, Merz also vowed to be a “very European” leader, with the continent’s other countries hopeful Germany will take on a greater international role.

On his first full day in office, the new chancellor will head to France and then Poland, seeking to boost ties with European neighbors who have sought to present a united front as US President Donald Trump upends long-standing security and diplomatic ties, and in the face of a hostile Russia.

Germany has for the most part been on the sidelines since the collapse in November of former chancellor Scholz’s government, with politics all but paralyzed as the country awaited a new leader.