Berlin | Friedrich Merz secured parliamentary backing as Germany’s new chancellor only on the second attempt, paving the way for the conservative leader to take charge of Europe’s biggest economy but with considerably diminished authority.

In a repeat Bundestag ballot on Tuesday (Wednesday AEST) in Berlin, Merz got 325 votes, more than the required 316 out of 630 lawmakers. He had earlier managed only 310 in an initial tally that was meant to rubber-stamp him as the head of an alliance of his centre-right CDU/CSU bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats, even though the coalition partners have 328 seats between them.

Bloomberg and AP