(ANSA-AFP) - BERLIN, MAY 6 - Germany's conservative leader
Friedrich Merz won on Tuesday a nail-biter second vote in
parliament to become chancellor after he lost the first round in
a stunning early setback. Merz, 69, scored an absolute majority
of 325 against 289 in the secret vote in the lower house of
parliament. He takes over at the helm of a coalition between his
CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) of
the outgoing chancellor, Olaf Scholz. President Frank-Walter
Steinmeier was set to appoint him as post-war Germany's 10th
chancellor later Tuesday, along with his cabinet, before Merz is
due to visit Paris and then Warsaw on Wednesday. His victory
caps a long ambition to lead Europe's biggest economy, which was
first foiled decades ago by party rival Angela Merkel who went
on to serve as chancellor for 16 years. Merz's eventual victory
on Tuesday was bittersweet as the initial defeat -- the first
such outcome in Germany's post-war history -- pointed to
rumblings of discontent within his uneasy coalition. The
unprecedented first-round loss was "a bad start" for Merz and
"shows that he cannot fully rely on his two coalition parties,
wrote analyst Holger Schmieding of Berenberg Bank. (ANSA-AFP).
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