File Picture Courtesy : Money control
Finally putting an end to nearly six months of political drift in Europe’s biggest economy – Germany , Germany’s parliament elected Angela Merkel for her record fourth term as chancellor. Lawmakers voted 364-315 to re-elect Merkel, Germany’s leader since 2005, who ran unopposed.
The coalition of Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union and the centre-left Social Democrats has 399 of the 709 seats in parliament.
Merkel will head a much-changed new Cabinet, with the governing parties — which are traditional rivals — keen to send signals of renewal after a September election in which all lost significant ground.
There are new faces in the most important posts, the finance, foreign, economy and interior ministries.
Merkel has been widely described as the de facto leader of the European Union, the most powerful woman in the world, and the leader of the Free World.
Merkel has twice been named the world’s second most powerful person following Vladimir Putin by Forbes magazine, the highest ranking ever achieved by a woman.
