Friedrich Merz secured the top job but only after losing on his first attempt, a surprise that potentially weakens his government at a fraught time for Germany and Europe

Friedrich Merz's unprecedented first-round failure in the vote to make him German chancellor on Tuesday gave a boost to the far-right AfD, which just days ago was reeling from being officially labelled an extremist threat to democracy.

Conservative leader Friedrich Merz has won a parliament vote to become Germany's next chancellor at the second attempt. Merz had initially fallen six votes short of the absolute majority he needed on Tuesday morning - a significant blow to his prestige and an unprecedented failure in post-war German history.