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.

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

BERLIN (Reuters) - German conservative leader Friedrich Merz failed to secure enough parliamentary votes to become chancellor on Tuesday, throwing politics in Europe's largest economy into disarray as it seeks to emerge from recession and stem far-right extremism.