Friedrich Merz has been elected Germany’s chancellor after securing 325 votes in a second round of parliamentary voting, following an unprecedented initial defeat, BBC reported.
Merz, 69, leads the CDU/CSU alliance, which gained 28.5 percent in the February election. The conservatives formed a partnership with the SPD, which gained 16.4 percent when Olaf Scholz's cabinet collapsed.
Merz received only 310 votes in the first round, despite having 328 seats in total. He was formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and will take the oath in the Reichstag.
The new coalition claims tax cuts, lower energy prices, higher defense expenditure, and continuing support for Ukraine, all while addressing the emergence of the far right and strained US-Ukraine economic relations, according to BBC.
