Angela Merkel has been voted in as Germany’s chancellor for the fourth time, Germany’s parliament, the Bundestag, confirmed Wednesday. She received 364 out of 709 votes in the first round of voting – 11 more than required to gain an absolute majority, but also 35 fewer than if all the members of her next governing coalition had cast their ballot in her favour.
Merkel’s Christian Democrats and the Social Democrats, who have agreed to re-enter a grand coalition together, have a total of 399 votes between them.
“A clear vote and a smooth start”, tweeted Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the new general secretary of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. “Now full steam ahead for Germany.”
As the chancellor received standing ovations, handshakes and bouquets of flowers from delegates across the political spectrum, she was watched over by her 89-year-old mother Herlind Kasner, seated on the Bundestag’s gallery next to Merkel’s long-term adviser Beate Baumann and husband Joachim Sauer.
After Merkel’s re-election she will immediately travel to Schloss Bellevue to receive a letter of appointment by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, before heading back to the Bundestag in order to take the oath of office. Later in the day, the new government ministers are also expected to be sworn in before the cabinet meets for the first time this afternoon.
The pressure will be on the new government to immediately get down to business, after months of horse-trading and delayed decision-making. Merkel said on Monday her new government’s focus would be on integrating refugees as well as increasing state powers to extradite people who had no right of residence. She has also stressed the necessity of securing Germany’s borders, and developing policies to mitigate the causes of migration.
The 63-year Merkel will now begin her fourth term as German chancellor and her third as leader of a grand coalition.
