France, May 6 -- The German parliament on Tuesday elected Friedrich Merz as Chancellor in a second round of voting. Merz failed in a first round of voting earlier in the day, triggering franctic hours of lobbying to gain support for a second vote that would back him.

The CDU politician received 325 yes votes in the second round of voting, nine more than he needed for election. 289 MPs voted against him.He needed a minimum of 316 votes in the 630 strong parliament.

According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ,) there was one abstention and three invalid votes.

Compared to the first round, 15 more parliamentarians supported Merz, but he still fell three votes short of the result that would have been expected if all members of the...