Media reports say ex-foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected Germany’s new president on February 12.
Thus, Euronews reports that the Social Democrat, 61, takes on the largely ceremonial role from 77-year-old Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor who made his mark as an anti-communist leader in the former East Germany.
In line with German tradition, Steinmeier was not elected directly by the people but by members of the federal parliament and special delegates from 16 regional parliaments.
Steinmeier was guaranteed victory in the vote, with support not only from his SPD party – the junior partner in Angela Merkel’s ruling ‘grand coalition’ – but also from the Chancellor’s own ‘Christian Democrats’, according to Euronews.
ABC News reports Steinmeier was elected in Berlin by the assembly made up of the 630 members of parliament's lower house and an equal number of representatives from Germany's 16 states.
He reportedly received 931 of the 1,260 votes.
The role of president makes Steinmeier a moral authority and Germany’s head of state, meaning he will represent the country abroad.
Steinmeier has long been one of Germany's most popular politicians. As former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder's chief of staff, he was a main architect of Schroeder's 2003 package of economic reforms and welfare cuts.
Under Merkel, he served twice as foreign minister — from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 until this year, with a stint as opposition leader in between.
A few years ago, Steinmeier took a several-months absence from politics, to donate one of his kidneys to his wife Elke Buedenbender, according to ABC News.
