Angela Merkel elected as German Chancellor for third term

Angela Merkel was on 17 December 2013 elected as the German Chancellor for third term by the German Parliament- Bundestag.

Angela Merkel's conservative Union bloc - the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) had secured a stunning hat-trick win in the 22 September 2013 elections but failed to grab an outright majority, forcing them to enter into coalition with the rival Social Democrats (SPD).
 
With a whopping 504 of the 631 seats, Angela Merkel's centre-right Christian Democrats Union (CDU) bloc and the SPD now hold a comfortable majority in the Bundestag, the lower house of parliament.
 
Angela Merkel was confirmed by 462 votes on 17 December 2013, with nine abstentions. For the vote, 621 members of parliament were present, of whom 150 voted against Merkel.

Angela Merkel is the third chancellor to win a third four-year term after Helmut Kohl (1982-1998) and Konrad Adenauer (1949-1963).

Germany, as the EU's most industrialised and populous state, with its biggest economy, it dominates decision-making for the Eurozone.

About Angela Merkel

Angela Dorothea Kasner, better known as Angela Merkel, was born in Hamburg, West Germany, on 17 July 1954. Trained as a physicist, Merkel entered politics after the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

Rising to the position of Chairwoman of the Christian Democratic Union party, Merkel became Germany’s first female chancellor, and one of the leading figures of the European Union, following the 2005 national elections.

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