News Digest Item
13 Feb 2017

“Frank-Walter Steinmeier elected Federal President with large majority”

German Bundestag

Social Democrat and former German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected President of Germany with 931 of 1239 valid votes by the Federal Convention of the Bundestag and state parliament delegates in Berlin. In his acceptance speech, Steinmeier told Germans: "Let's be brave, because then I will not fear for the future.” The current coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD, as well as the Green Party and the Free Democrats had announced before the vote that they would support Steinmeier. Steinmeier will begin his term on 19 March. As foreign minister, Steinmeier had called the Energiewende “the German ‘Man-to-the-Moon’ project.”

Read the press release in German here and read a Reuters article on the topic in English here.

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