Reading Time: 3 minutesGerman conservative leader Friedrich Merz has won a parliament vote to become Germany’s next chancellor at the second attempt. No chancellor candidate has lost a Bundestag vote in the 76 years since democracy was restored in Germany in 1949, and there was a prevailing mood of confusion in parliament in the hours after the vote. Merz, 69, was then sworn in as chancellor by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, and his team of 17 ministers were due to take office. Bundestag President Julia Klöckner had originally been planning a follow-up vote on Wednesday, but Christian Democrat General Secretary Carsten Linnemann said it was important to press ahead. The Bundestag president told MPs that nine of the 630 MPs had been absent for the first vote while three had abstained and another ballot paper had been declared invalid.