Sawt Falasteen - New German leader Merz stumbles out of the blocks

Having vowed to hit the ground running, the 69-year-old instead stumbled when he lost an initial parliamentary vote to elevate him to the chancellor's office, a first in post-war German history.

After a long day of high political drama and a tense second vote in the Bundestag, Merz scraped through, visibly relieved to achieve his decades-old goal to lead Europe's top economy.

Merz will be hoping the episode was just a bump in the road as he sets out to build a "Germany we can be proud of again", his motto in the campaign leading up to February's election.

He has vowed to reboot Germany's ailing economy, strengthen the threadbare armed forces and curb irregular immigration, signalling a rightward shift in the way the country is governed.

Six months since the collapse of ex-chancellor Olaf Scholz's government, Merz has also pledged to swiftly rebuild Berlin's role on the European and world stage.

But the first-round rejection by MPs dealt an early blow to Merz as he seeks to get to grips with myriad challenges facing Germany in a world upended by US President Donald Trump.

"Merz is now considered damaged, a chancellor without a stable alliance -- and his popularity ratings are already not good," judged news weekly Der Spiegel.

- Business background -

It was a humiliation for the former BlackRock board member, who has a strong business background but has never held a government leadership post.

Still, Merz has previously shown his will to overcome setbacks.

He made a political comeback after being sidelined from power in the early 2000s by long-time party rival Angela Merkel, who went on to rule for 16 years.

Merz has vowed a return to the old-school conservative roots of their Christian Democrats (CDU) and overturn much of her legacy, especially her open-door policy to migrants.

In a political gamble, he pushed a non-binding parliamentary motion demanding an immigration crackdown earlier this year with the support of the AfD -- a move widely condemned as breaking a long-standing taboo against co-operating with the far right.

Merz has also vowed a "zero tolerance" law-and-order drive and to limit "woke" policies.

- Hobby pilot -

A millionaire and amateur pilot who owns a private jet, Merz has faced criticism for being aloof and out of touch.

He sought to soften his image on the campaign trail, sometimes showing up with a beer in hand at campaign events.

His approach paid off and his CDU/CSU alliance went on to come first in the February elections. To win a majority, it then forged a coalition government with the centre-left SPD.

But he shocked many Germans by swiftly moving to push changes to the "debt brake", which limits how much the government can borrow, laying the ground for vast extra outlays in defence and infrastructure.

During the election campaign, Merz had pledged not to touch the debt rules, and the move him an easy target for criticism from the AfD, which came second in the February election.

Merz, a Catholic, lives among the hills and forests of the Sauerland region of North Rhine-Westphalia state.

At 198 centimetres (six foot six), Merz stands out in a crowd.

He has been married for more than 40 years to Charlotte Merz, a judge, with whom he has three adult children.

A trained lawyer, he was elected to the European Parliament in 1989 and soon after to the Bundestag, where his mentor was the late CDU powerbroker Wolfgang Schaeuble.

When he lost the internal battle against Merkel, Merz took a break from politics and went into the business world, serving on multiple corporate boards.

A free-market liberal who wants to slash red tape to help Germany Inc, he outlined his views in a 2008 book titled "Dare More Capitalism".

Merz has sought to turn his long stint in the business world into a key selling point, said political scientist Antonios Souris of Berlin's Free University.

"He likes to flirt a little with this role of having returned to politics as an outsider, as an experienced captain of industry, not just a career politician like Scholz," he said.

H.Nasr--SF-PST