Lars Klingbeil, believes conservative Friedrich Merz will garner enough support from lawmakers to become chancellor in a second round of voting, after falling short by just six votes hours earlier. Klingbeil said Merz's conservative bloc and the SPD - which agreed to form Germany's next coalition government - as well as the opposition Greens and The Left party had agreed to request a second round of voting to take place in the afternoon.

His countrymen, he declares, will have to ‘engage’ with the AfD, ‘factually and on substance.’

German conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed to secure enough parliamentary votes to become chancellor in a major blow.