BERLIN
Germany’s parliament elected Angela Merkel on Tuesday for a third term as chancellor.
The majority of German deputies voted for Merkel, as she received 462 “yes” votes out of 621. Bundestag’s 150 deputies voted against Merkel and 9 deputies abstained.
Calculations show that apparently 23 parliamentarians from Merkel’s own coalition withheld their support.
Merkel's CDU/CSU alliance has 311 seats and their coalition partner Social Democratic Party (SPD) has 193 seats at the Bundestag, the lower house of the parliament. The two opposition parties, The Left Party (Die Linke) and The Greens have a total of 127 seats.
Soon after the vote at the parliament, German President Joachim Gauck presided Merkel taking the oath of office.
The new "grand coalition" government of Merkel’s conservatives and Social Democrats is set to make its first cabinet meeting later on Tuesday.
Chancellor Merkel’s CDU/CSU alliance won a landslide victory in September 22 general elections, but fell 5 seats short of winning an absolute majority at the Bundestag.
Almost three months long coalition talks with Merkel’s conservative bloc and the Social Democrats ended with an agreement in late November, and 470 thousand SPD delegates gave their green light for the coalition agreement in a mini-referendum carried out early this month.
The coalition agreement was signed by the leaders on Monday.
englishnews@aa.com.tr
