Friedrich Merz's bid to become Germany's 10th chancellor unexpectedly fails in first round of voting

The conservative leader needed a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a secret ballot but received 310, unexpectedly falling short by just six votes in the first round.

Friedrich Merz's bid to become Germany's next chancellor has unexpectedly failed in the first round of parliamentary voting.

Mr Merz, leader of the country's CDU/CSU conservatives, is hoping to become the 10th chancellor since the end of the Second World War.

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Since then, no previous candidate has failed to win on the first vote.

Needing a majority of 316 out of 630 votes in a secret ballot, he received 310 - falling short by just six votes.

He had been expected to win comfortably after securing a coalition deal with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD).

The result means at least 18 coalition MPs failed to back him.

Parties will now regroup to discuss the next steps. Another vote could be held later on Tuesday, though the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung and Zeit newspapers said that had been ruled out.

The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party said it was prepared to take part in another ballot on Wednesday.

"We will not stand in the way of a second round of voting tomorrow," Tino Chrupalla, the party's co-leader, said on German television.

AfD leader Alice Weidel said on X that Merz's failure to secure a majority showed the "weak foundation" on which his coalition was built, adding that it had been "voted out by the voters".

Bodo Ramelow, vice president of the Bundestag and a member of the Left Party also backed a swift resumption, saying he hoped another parliamentary session would be held on Wednesday.

Since then, the AfD has been supported by both Vice-President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

Their support inevitably both undermines Merz and also chisels away at the stigma of supporting the AfD.

It also creates the bizarre situation that the most powerful political establishment in the world is offering support to a party that has been labelled a threat to democracy by its own nation's security and judicial system.

Merz is no political novice, but this is high stakes stuff. He will, almost certainly, still end up as chancellor, but a difficult job has already become much, much harder.

If he tries to hold up his centrist coalition with the SPD he will be attacked, relentlessly, by the AfD and perhaps by Washington.

If he tries to extend a hand of friendship towards the AfD his coalition will probably collapse.

Europe's richest nation is looking unusually unsure.

Whoever is elected as chancellor will have to decide what to do about the AfD.

Mainstream parties have refused to work with it. A "firewall" against collaborating with strongly right-wing parties has been in place since the end of the war.

During federal elections in late February, the AfD scored its best-ever result while Chancellor Olaf Scholz's SPD dropped to about 16%.

The AfD is the second largest party in the lower house of the Bundestag and was officially designated as extremist last week by Germany's domestic spy agency.

The new chancellor's in-tray will also include the Ukraine War and global tariffs imposed by US President Donald Trump.