A lawmaker for Germany's Social Democrats (SPD) has called for unity as lawmakers were set to vote in a second secret ballot to elect conservative Friedrich Merz as the country's new chancellor, after a historic defeat in a first round earlier on Tuesday.

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.