Germany now has a new president: the 61-year-old Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the former foreign minister of the country and one of the most popular politicians of the country.
Mr. Steinmeier was elected by the Assembly with the 630 members of Parliament’s Lower
House and an equal number of representatives from Germany’s 16 states. He received 931 of 1,239 valid votes after Merkel’s conservatives greed to support him to replace Joachim Gauck. The voting was held in Berlin’s glass-domed Reichstag building.
In his acceptance speech, Steinmeier said Germany should be an “anchor of hope” while democratic institutions were under threat across the globe.
“Let’s be brave, because then we don’t have to be afraid of the future,” Mr. Steinmeier said in the speech.
“Isn’t it actually wonderful, that this Germany, our difficult fatherland, that this country has become an anchor of hope in the world for many, after overcoming wars and totalitarianism,” Mr. Steinmeier said.
“We’re living in tumultuous times; many in our country feel insecure,” he told the assembly.
Mr. Steinmeier had strongly criticized Donald Trump during the U.S. election campaign.
“The result is not what most Germans would have wished,” he had said on Nov. 9, the day after Trump’s victory in US Presidential elections.
“I don’t want to sugarcoat anything. Nothing will be easier, many things will become more difficult.”
German chancellor Ms. Merkel congratulated the new president on Sunday.
“This is a good day for Germany,” she said.
Political expert Michael Broening of the SPD’s think-tank the Friedrich Ebert Foundation said that “as foreign minister, Steinmeier often acted as a voice of reason, bridging gaps and bringing people together”.
“It is hardly surprising that Steinmeier has branded himself as the essential anti-Trump,” he added.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault praised Steinmeier appointment as the new president.
Steinmeier has “all my confidence for his contribution to EU unity and the friendship between our two countries”, Ayrault said in a tweet.
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