Merkel appointed Chancellor for third term
Germany’s Parliament has elected Chancellor Angela Merkel to a third term as the leader of Europe’s biggest economic power, nearly three months after an awkward election result forced her to put together a new governing coalition.
Politicians elected Mrs Merkel as Chancellor by 462 votes to 150 with nine abstentions. She now heads a “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties - her conservative Union bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats.
The two are traditional rivals. Their effort to form a government after national elections on September 22 has been the longest in post-Second World War Germany.
The new government will move Germany somewhat leftward, for example introducing a national minimum wage, but will take a largely unchanged approach to approach to Europe’s debt crisis.
