Germany's Merkel starts 3rd term in new coalition
Source: Associated Press
Germany's Merkel starts 3rd term in new coalition
By GEIR MOULSON, Associated Press | December 17, 2013 | Updated: December 17, 2013 4:04am
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Parliament elected Chancellor Angela Merkel to a third term as the leader of Europe's biggest economic power on Tuesday, nearly three months after an awkward election result forced her to put together a new governing coalition.
Merkel now heads a "grand coalition" of Germany's biggest parties — her conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats, which are traditional rivals. Parliament's lower house elected her as chancellor by 462 votes to 150, with nine abstentions
The new government will move Germany somewhat leftward, for example introducing a national minimum wage, but will take a largely unchanged approach to Europe's debt crisis.
It features Germany's first female defense minister, conservative Ursula von der Leyen, and sees former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, return to his old job. Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a powerful figure in Europe's debt crisis, is staying on.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/world/article/Germany-s-Merkel-starts-3rd-term-in-new-coalition-5070610.php
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