BERLIN: Angela Merkel was elected to a third term as German Chancellor as a total of 462 lawmakers backed her for chancellor‚ with 150 voting against and 9 abstaining in the country’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday.
Her election as German Chancellor to a third term came nearly three months after an election result forced her to put together a grand coalition of her conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats.
In German election held on September 22, Merkel’s conservatives scored their best result in more than two decades, but were forced into lengthy coalition talks with the rival Social Democrats (SPD) whose members only approved the deal last weekend.
Merkel’s new grand coalition government will formally take power after being sworn in in later Tuesday.
The new government faces a host of challenges‚ from bedding down European reforms aimed at shielding the bloc from future crises‚ to seeing through Merkel’s costly switch from nuclear to renewable energy.
