The German parliament plans to meet on May 6 to elect Friedrich Merz as the country's next leader, the "Associated Press" reports.
This will happen if all parties in his proposed government approve the coalition agreement reached last week.
The lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, announced today that Speaker Julia Klöckner is preparing to convene the session early next month.
Merz will need a majority of all members of the chamber to be elected Germany's tenth chancellor since World War II, succeeding Olaf Scholz. The proposed coalition of his center-right Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union; and Scholz's center-left Social Democrats have a relatively modest majority, with 328 out of 630 seats.
With no party willing to work with the far-right, anti-immigration "Alternative for Germany", which finished second in Germany's February election, no other plausible combination of governing parties has a parliamentary majority.
There are still two hurdles to overcome before parliament can vote. The biggest problem is the Social Democrats' vote on the coalition agreement, which begins tomorrow and ends on April 29. The CDU must also approve the agreement at a party congress scheduled for April 28, and the CSU leadership already approved it last week.
The future coalition aims to boost economic growth, increase defense spending, take a tougher approach to migration and catch up on long-neglected modernization.
There is, however, some resistance within the ranks of the Social Democrats after the party finished third in February, its worst post-war result in a national parliamentary election. The party's youth wing has spoken out against the agreement.
Party co-chair Lars Klingbeil expressed confidence yesterday that most members would say it was right for the Social Democrats to "take responsibility for Germany."
"There are always alternatives. One alternative is new elections, one alternative is perhaps a minority government," he said. But in today's difficult times, "Germany must be a place of stability," Klingbeil added. "For that, we need a stable democratic government, and we have presented a reasonable coalition agreement for that," he stressed.