A parliamentary assembly met at the Reichstag in Berlin to elect centre-left politician Frank-Walter Steinmeier the new president of Germany. Steinmeier, who once characterised Donlad Trump as a “hate preacher”, references the first president of the country, Theodor Heuss, and urges his fellow parliamentarians to ensure Germany stands firm “on this foundation of democracy”
A centre-left politician who once characterized Donald Trump as a “hate preacher” has been elected president of Germany. The former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was voted in on Sunday by a parliamentary assembly made up of 1,260 MPs and representatives of Germany’s 16 states.
Steinmeier, a member of the Social Democratic party, had guaranteed the support both of his own centre-left bloc and Angela Merkel’s centre-right Christian Democratic party, who between them hold a majority of 923 seats in the assembly.
In his acceptance speech, Steinmeier, 61, said Germany should be an “anchor of hope” while democratic institutions were under threat across the globe. “As the foundations are shaking elsewhere, we have to prop up those foundations even more strongly,” he said
Gaining 75% of votes in the first round, he beat four outsider candidates fielded by the smaller parties, including Christoph Butterwegge, a political scientist and poverty researcher; Albrecht Glaser, a former Christian Democrat running for the rightwing populist Alternative for Germany party (AfD); and Engelbert Sonneborn, the father of the leader of the satirical organisation the Party.
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