BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, bruised by half a year of post-election coalition haggling, was on Wednesday (Mar 14) narrowly confirmed by parliament to her fourth and likely final term at the helm of Europe's biggest economy.

Lawmakers in Berlin's glass-domed Reichstag voted 364-315 with nine abstentions for Merkel, who was then formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier before taking the oath of office.

The outcome of the secret ballot suggested 35 lawmakers of her new right-left coalition bloc voted against Merkel, giving her a thin nine-vote margin that opposition parties were quick to label a "rocky start" for a spent and joyless governing alliance.

Merkel, wearing a necklace in the national colours black-red-gold, nevertheless beamed with joy and relief as applause filled the Bundestag chamber, where her scientist husband Joachim Sauer and her 89-year-old mother Herlind Kasner were among the well-wishers.

For the veteran leader, the ceremony marked the end of a painful stretch of post-election paralysis, the deepest crisis of her 12-year career.

A right-wing populist rise in September elections weakened all mainstream parties and deprived Merkel of a majority, forcing her into another unhappy alliance with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The grand coalition, mockingly dubbed a "GroKo" in German, didn't start as a "love marriage", her designated vice chancellor and finance minister, the SPD's Olaf Scholz, drily observed this week.

All coalition partners have nonetheless sought to allay fears that their marriage of convenience could break up mid-term, insisting they plan to jointly govern until 2021.

From 1600 GMT, Merkel sits down with her new cabinet, in which the SPD has wrested both the trophy posts of finance and foreign affairs to the dismay of a growing band of critics within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

To quieten the dissent, Merkel has named a sometimes outspoken critic, Jens Spahn, 37, as her new health minister and recently tapped a potential successor, new CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

"The chancellor was, from time to time, written off in the past six months," Marianne Kneuer of Hildesheim University told Phoenix TV.

"Many in the party started thinking about the future after Angela Merkel ... but at the same time Merkel has strengthened her position again."

On Friday Merkel will head to Paris to discuss EU reform plans with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of a Mar 22-23 summit, after a lengthy stretch in which Berlin was hamstrung on the European and world stage.

Macron warned in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily that, without Germany on board, "part of my project would be doomed to failure".

"We are completely dependent on each other. I do not believe for one second that a European project without or against Germany could succeed."

Merkel's incoming coalition has broadly welcomed Macron's bold reform plans, meant to reinvigorate the bloc and counter extremists and populists who have made major gains in Western democracies.

She has argued that the EU must increasingly look after its own interests in the era of US President Donald Trump, who has questioned long-standing transatlantic defence ties and threatened a trade war.

Berlin advocates closer EU cooperation on defence, immigration and plans for a European Monetary Fund. But it is lukewarm on the idea of a joint eurozone finance minister and rejects any pooling of debt.

The rise of populist fringe parties is also the central domestic threat for Merkel's new coalition, which faces the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the biggest opposition party.

The AfD scored almost 13 per cent in the election, capitalising on public fears over a mass influx of more than one million refugees and migrants since 2015 and angrily demanding that "Merkel must go".

The shock rise of the AfD has come at the expense of the CDU, its Bavarian CSU allies and especially the SPD, all of which suffered their worst results in decades in September.

While Merkel's last GroKo had a crushing 80 per cent parliamentary majority, the margin has shrunk to 56 per cent.

To answer the new right-wing threat, designated interior minister Horst Seehofer has pledged a "zero tolerance" law-and-order drive and faster deportations of failed asylum-seekers.

His new interior super-ministry also covers "Heimat" or homeland affairs, a term much derided for evoking Alpine vistas, beer and bratwurst but intended to recapture claims to patriotism from the AfD.

Scholz has meanwhile promised to tackle another fear exploited by populists, of vanishing jobs in the age of globalisation and rapid technological change.

"When we look at the Trump election, Brexit and the success of right-wing populist parties in many European countries," Scholz said, "we see there is a clear need to find new answers to the challenges of the 21st century." </s> Berlin : German Chancellor Angela Merkel, bruised by half a year of post-election coalition haggling, was on Wednesday narrowly confirmed by parliament to her fourth and likely final term at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy.

Lawmakers in Berlin’s glass-domed Reichstag voted 364-315 with nine abstentions for Merkel, who was then formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier before taking the oath of office. The outcome of the secret ballot suggested 35 lawmakers of her new right-left coalition bloc voted against Merkel, giving her a thin nine-vote margin that opposition parties were quick to label a “rocky start” for a spent and joyless governing alliance.

Merkel, wearing a necklace in the national colours black-red-gold, nevertheless beamed with joy and relief as applause filled the Bundestag chamber, where her scientist husband Joachim Sauer and her 89-year-old mother Herlind Kasner were among the well-wishers.

For the veteran leader, the ceremony marked the end of a painful stretch of post-election paralysis, the deepest crisis of her 12-year career, reports AFP.

A right-wing populist rise in September elections weakened all mainstream parties and deprived Merkel of a majority, forcing her into another unhappy alliance with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The grand coalition, mockingly dubbed a “GroKo” in German, didn’t start as a “love marriage”, her designated vice chancellor and finance minister, the SPD’s Olaf Scholz, drily observed this week. All coalition partners have nonetheless sought to allay fears that their marriage of convenience could break up mid-term, insisting they plan to jointly govern until 2021, reports AFP.

Merkel sits down with her new cabinet, in which the SPD has wrested both the trophy posts of finance and foreign affairs to the dismay of a growing band of critics within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

To quieten the dissent, Merkel has named a sometimes outspoken critic, Jens Spahn, 37, as her new health minister and recently tapped a potential successor, new CDU general secretary Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.

“The chancellor was, from time to time, written off in the past six months,” Marianne Kneuer of Hildesheim University told Phoenix TV.

“Many in the party started thinking about the future after Angela Merkel… but at the same time Merkel has strengthened her position again.” </s> Angela Merkel has been re-elected as Chancellor of the Federal Republic of #Germany by the German Bundestag https://t.co/45pEULfS0t </s> German Chancellor Angela Merkel, bruised by half a year of post-election coalition haggling, was Wednesday elected by parliament to her fourth and likely final term at the helm of Europe’s biggest economy.

 Lawmakers in Berlin’s glass-domed Reichstag voted 364-315 with nine abstentions for Merkel, who was then to be formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier before taking the oath of office at 1100 GMT.

 Merkel, wearing a white blazer, said, “I accept the vote” and beamed happily as applause filled the Bundestag chamber, where her scientist husband, Joachim Sauer, and her 89-year-old mother, Herlind Kasner, were among the well-wishers.

 For the veteran leader, the ceremony marked the end of a painful stretch of post-election paralysis, the deepest crisis of her 12-year career.

 A right-wing populist rise in September 2017 elections weakened all mainstream parties and deprived Merkel of a majority, forcing her into another unhappy alliance with the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

 The grand coalition, mockingly dubbed a “GroKo” in German, didn’t start as a “love marriage,” her designated vice chancellor and finance minister, the SPD’s Olaf Scholz, dryly observed this week.

 All coalition partners have nonetheless sought to allay fears that their marriage of convenience could break up mid-term, insisting they plan to jointly govern until 2021.

 From 1600 GMT, Merkel sits down with her new cabinet, in which the SPD has wrested both the trophy posts of finance and foreign affairs to the dismay of a growing band of critics within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

 On Friday, Merkel will head to Paris to discuss EU reform plans with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of a March 22-23 summit, after a six-month stretch in which Berlin was hamstrung on the European and world stage.

 Macron warned in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily that, without Germany on board, “part of my project would be doomed to failure.”

 “We are completely dependent on each other. I do not believe for one second that a European project without or against Germany could succeed.” Merkel’s incoming coalition has broadly welcomed Macron’s bold reform plans, meant to reinvigorate the bloc and counter extremists and populists who have made major gains in Western democracies.

 She has argued that the EU must increasingly look after its own interests in the era of US President Donald Trump, who has questioned long-standing transatlantic defense ties and threatened a trade war.

 Berlin advocates closer EU cooperation on defense, immigration, and plans for a European Monetary Fund. But it is lukewarm on the idea of a joint eurozone finance minister and rejects any pooling of debt.—Agencies </s> BERLIN (AP) - German Chancellor Angela Merkel says she understands reporters' questions surrounding her health after two incidents this month in which she was seen shaking at public events, but insisted: "I'm fine."

Merkel said Saturday at the end of the Group of 20 summit in Japan that included a long-distance flight and grueling negotiations with other world leaders that "I'm convinced, just as this reaction occurred it will go away again."

The 64-year-old appeared unsteady and was seen shaking at a ceremony in Berlin on Thursday. Last week, Merkel's whole body shook as she stood outside in hot weather alongside Ukraine's president. Merkel said afterward that she was fine after drinking three glasses of water, which she "apparently needed."

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) takes part in the presentation of the appointment and dismissal certificate as Federal Minister of Justice to Katarina Barley (SPD) and the new Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht (SPD) by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Bellevue Castle in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 27, 2019. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) takes part in the presentation of the appointment and dismissal certificate as Federal Minister of Justice to Katarina Barley (SPD) and the new Federal Minister of Justice Christine Lambrecht (SPD) by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in Bellevue Castle in Berlin, Germany, Thursday, June 27, 2019. (Kay Nietfeld/dpa via AP)

German Chancellor Angela Merkel, left, looks at her watch as Russian President Vladimir Putin visits her for the talks during a meeting on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Osaka, western Japan, Saturday, June 29, 2019. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko, Pool) </s> Angela Merkel is starting her fourth term as German chancellor in stormy times as she heads a fragile coalition that took almost six months to put together.

Angela Merkel is starting her fourth term as German chancellor in stormy times as she heads a fragile coalition that took almost six months to put together.

Angela Merkel must hold together fragile coalition in fourth term as chancellor

Ms Merkel, chancellor since 2005 and the EU’s longest-serving leader, was sworn in on Wednesday at the head of a “grand coalition” of Germany’s biggest parties. That put an end to months of drift after September’s election, during which Germany’s voice in the world was weakened by the domestic political impasse.

She can now turn her attention fully to matters such as French President Emmanuel Macron’s months-old proposals for ambitious reforms of the EU and its currency union, and US President Donald Trump’s threats of trade tariffs against the EU and even taxes on German carmakers. German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, right, and his predecessor Sigmar Gabriel at a handing-over of office ceremony at the foreign ministry in Berlin (AP Photo/Michael Sohn) At home, Ms Merkel will have to hold together potentially her most fragile governing coalition yet in what is widely expected to be her last term.

It contains the same parties as her last administration — her Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union and the centre-left Social Democrats — but putting the new administration together has been unprecedentedly difficult after all three lost significant support in September’s election. A parliamentary vote on Wednesday to re-elect Ms Merkel came 171 days after the election, nearly double the previous record.

The Social Democrats initially planned to go into opposition after crashing to their worst result since the Second World War, but German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier nudged them into a reluctant about-turn after Ms Merkel’s talks with two smaller parties collapsed in November. Ms Merkel was able to take office only after two-thirds of the Social Democrats’ members approved in a ballot the coalition deal clinched last month. With all the coalition parties keen to send signals of renewal, she leads a much-changed Cabinet.

“Finally we have a new government — a government of election losers, business as usual,” Alternative for Germany co-leader Alice Weidel said. Ms Merkel, 63, has long dismissed the notion that she should be regarded as the “leader of the free world” following the election of Mr Trump, who is unpopular in Germany and elsewhere in Europe.

A strong advocate of multilateral solutions, she says that no one person or country can solve every problem. However, Mr Steinmeier underlined expectations that Germany should serve as an example as he formally appointed her new government.

“Western liberal democracies are exposed to challenges, external as well as internal,” he said, with authoritarian alternatives gaining in confidence. “The expectations of our friends and partners are huge, particularly in Europe,” Mr Steinmeier said. “Many hope we in Germany will show that liberal democracies are capable of acting and facing the future.” Ms Merkel’s first trip abroad of her fourth term will take her to Paris on Friday to meet Mr Macron.

Emmanuel Macron said his EU reform plans could not succeed without the support of Germany (AP Photo/Rajesh Kumar Singh) In comments published on Wednesday by Germany’s Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the French leader was quoted as saying that “if Germany doesn’t move, part of my project is condemned to failure”. He added: “I don’t think for a second that a European project can succeed without or against Germany.” Elsewhere in Europe, Italy has entered post-election political gridlock just as Germany’s ends. </s> Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel, bruised by half a year of post-election coalition haggling, was Wednesday elected by parliament to her fourth and likely final term at the helm of Europe`s biggest economy.

Lawmakers in Berlin`s glass-domed Reichstag voted 364-315 with nine abstentions for Merkel who was then to be formally appointed by President Frank-Walter Steinmeier before taking the oath of office at 1100 GMT.

Merkel, wearing a white blazer, said "I accept the vote" and beamed happily as applause filled the Bundestag chamber, where her scientist husband Joachim Sauer and her 89-year-old mother Herlind Kasner were among the well-wishers.

For the veteran leader, the ceremony marked the end of a painful stretch of post-election paralysis, the deepest crisis of her 12-year career.

A right-wing populist rise in September elections weakened all mainstream parties and deprived Merkel of a majority, forcing her into another unhappy alliance with the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD).

The grand coalition, mockingly dubbed a "GroKo" in German, didn`t start as a "love marriage", her designated vice chancellor and finance minister, the SPD`s Olaf Scholz, drily observed this week.

All coalition partners have nonetheless sought to allay fears that their marriage of convenience could break up mid-term, insisting they plan to jointly govern until 2021.

From 1600 GMT, Merkel sits down with her new cabinet, in which the SPD has wrested both the trophy posts of finance and foreign affairs to the dismay of a growing band of critics within her Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

On Friday Merkel will head to Paris to discuss EU reform plans with French President Emmanuel Macron ahead of a March 22-23 summit, after a six-month stretch in which Berlin was hamstrung on the European and world stage.

Macron warned in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung daily that, without Germany on board, "part of my project would be doomed to failure".

"We are completely dependent on each other. I do not believe for one second that a European project without or against Germany could succeed."Merkel`s incoming coalition has broadly welcomed Macron`s bold reform plans, meant to reinvigorate the bloc and counter extremists and populists who have made major gains in Western democracies.

She has argued that the EU must increasingly look after its own interests in the era of US President Donald Trump, who has questioned long-standing transatlantic defence ties and threatened a trade war.

Berlin advocates closer EU cooperation on defence, immigration and plans for a European Monetary Fund. But it is lukewarm on the idea of a joint eurozone finance minister and rejects any pooling of debt.

Scholz, who takes over from CDU fiscal hawk Wolfgang Schaeuble, has made clear he will stick with Berlin`s cherished "black zero" policy of avoiding new public debt.

The rise of populist fringe parties is also the central domestic threat for Merkel`s new coalition, which will face the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) as the biggest opposition party.

The AfD scored almost 13 percent in the election, capitalising on public fears over a mass influx of more than one million refugees and migrants since 2015 and angrily demanding that "Merkel must go".The shock rise of the AfD has come at the expense of the CDU, its Bavarian CSU allies and especially the SPD, all of which suffered their worst results in decades in September.

While Merkel`s last GroKo had a crushing 80 percent parliamentary majority, the margin has shrunk to 56 percent.

To answer the new right-wing threat, designated interior minister Horst Seehofer has pledged a "zero tolerance" law and order drive and faster deportations of failed asylum-seekers.

His new interior super-ministry also covers "Heimat" or homeland affairs, a term much derided for evoking Alpine vistas, beer and bratwurst but intended to recapture claims to patriotism from the AfD.

Scholz has meanwhile promised to tackle another fear exploited by populists, of vanishing jobs in the age of globalisation and rapid technological change.

"When we look at the Trump election, Brexit and the success of right-wing populist parties in many European countries," Scholz said, "we see there is a clear need to find new answers to the challenges of the 21st century." </s> BERLIN: Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, the head of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrat party, will succeed Ursula von der Leyen as German defence minister, a source within the party told Reuters on Tuesday (Jul 16).

Von der Leyen, who was confirmed on Tuesday by the European Parliament as the next head of the European Union's executive, steps down from her German role on Tuesday.

Kramp-Karrenbauer, a close Merkel ally who is widely seen as the long-serving chancellor's favoured candidate to succeed her, currently has no government role, which critics say would make it more difficult for her to transition to the chancellorship. </s> Angela Merkel has been sworn in as Chancellor of Germany after lawmakers voted to re-elect her as leader in a close vote Wednesday morning.

The vote in parliament ended almost six months of political turmoil after a federal election saw millions of voters desert the two mainstream parties — Merkel’s CDU and the Social Democratic Party (SPD) — turning instead to parties on the left and right.

In a secret ballot, 364 of the Bundestag’s 709 members voted in favor of Merkel — nine more than the 50% required. Thirty-five MPs from the parties governing under Merkel did not vote to re-elect her.

Merkel’s victory marks the final stepping stone on the path to Germany’s new government — a renewal of the so-called grand coalition (“GroKo”) between the Chancellor’s CDU/CSU alliance and the SPD.

The former leader of the SPD, Martin Schulz, had initially ruled out a new GroKo, pledging to take his party into opposition, but was forced to change his stance after coalition talks between the CDU, Green Party and liberal FDP collapsed in November, raising the possibility of new elections.

After weeks of negotiations, a coalition treaty was produced and later approved by SPD members who voted via postal ballot. But many SPD members and politicians remain unhappy with their party’s involvement in the new coalition.

Far right in opposition

The renewal of the grand coalition means the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) is now officially the lead opposition party in parliament.

The AfD was founded in 2013 and its virulently anti-immigration platform proved popular with voters in the September election.

The party surged into third place in the election with 12.6% of the vote, the first time in decades that a far-right, openly nationalist party had won seats in Germany’s federal parliament.

AfD politicians have campaigned strongly against Merkel and her policies. Following the election result in September, co-leader Alexander Gauland promised his party would provide staunch opposition to the new government, adding: “We will hunt them. We will hunt Mrs. Merkel or whomever. And we will take back our country and our people.”
Angela Merkel is elected and sworn in for a new term as Chancellor of Germany. Olaf Scholz and Heiko Maas assume the positions of Vice-Chancellor and Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs respectively.