German president-elect, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, receives flowers after the first round of voting of the German presidential election at the Reichstag in Berlin, February 12, 2017. REUTERS/Hannibal Hanschke.
BERLIN: Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a popular Social Democrat politician, was elected Germany’s new president by an overwhelming majority Sunday.
The 61-year-old politician, who served as foreign minister from 2013 until last January, managed to secure a majority in the first vote by the Federal Convention, and became Germany’s twelfth president.
The new president got 931 out of 1239 valid votes cast by the members of the Federal Assembly, which is made up of 630 federal lawmakers and an equal number of delegates from 16 states.
Steinmeier was named the joint candidate of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrat bloc and their coalition partner Social Democratic Party (SPD).
Opposition parties, The Greens and the Free Democratic Party (FDP), also backed Steinmeier as the country's next president.
