kmhouseindia: German Parliament Confirms Angela Merkel for New Term Tuesday Dec 17,2013

Wednesday, December 18, 2013

German Parliament Confirms Angela Merkel for New Term Tuesday Dec 17,2013

Angela Merkel has been confirmed as German chancellor for a third term, at the head of a grand coalition, by a vote in the Bundestag (parliament )on Tuesday Dec 17,2013

The coalition between her centre-right CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democrats (SPD) has a huge majority, with 504 of the 631 seats in the lower house.

Angela Merkel was confirmed (by 462 votes, with nine abstentions,while 150 voted against her)as Chancellor of Germany for a third term

The first Bundestag session since the September 22,2013 vote was largely ceremonial as Angela Merkel was to be confirmed

As the new 631-member lower house of parliament gathered under the huge glass dome of the Reichstag building in Berlin, about one-third of the legislators were newcomers.
The new parliament, the 18th in post-war Germany, has a record number of women, at 36 %, and of legislators with migrant backgrounds, at 5.9 %.A former wrestler, an ex-TV detective, Germany's first African-born federal politician and a record number of women entered parliament on Tuesday

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (L) is sworn-in by Parliament President Norbert Lammert during the meeting of Germany's lower house of parliament, Bundestag in Berlin December 17, 2013