<p>Germany's Parliament has elected Chancellor Angela Merkel to a third term as the leader of Europe's biggest economic power, nearly three months after an awkward election result forced her to put together a new governing coalition.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Merkel now heads a "grand coalition" of Germany's biggest parties, her conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats, which are traditional rivals. Parliament's lower house elected her yesterday as chancellor by 462 votes to 150, with nine abstentions<br /><br />The new government will move Germany somewhat leftward, for example introducing a national minimum wage, but will take a largely unchanged approach to Europe's debt crisis.<br /><br />It features Germany's first female defence minister, conservative Ursula von der Leyen, and sees former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, return to his old job.<br /><br />Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a powerful figure in Europe's debt crisis, is staying on.<br /><br />The parties' effort to form a government after September 22 national elections, in which Merkel's conservatives came close to a parliamentary majority but saw their previous coalition partners lose all their seats, has been the longest in post-World War II Germany.<br /><br />It was extended by the Social Democrats' decision to put the coalition deal to a ballot of all their members. They won approval last weekend but some remain wary because the party emerged weakened from a previous grand coalition in Merkel's first term, from 2005 to 2009.<br /><br />At least 42 government lawmakers didn't vote for the chancellor yesterday but, given the new coalition's enormous majority, that is unlikely to worry her.<br /><br />Conservatives and Social Democrats hold 504 of the 631 seats. Germany's best-known ex-communist, Gregor Gysi, becomes the opposition leader; his hardline Left Party is the bigger of two left-leaning opposition groups.<br /><br />Germany's biggest-selling newspaper, Bild, declared on yesterday's front page: "Dear grand coalition, we are your extraparliamentary opposition now!" Editor Kai Diekmann wrote that "this parliament is too weak; its opposition too small and too left-wing."</p>
<p>Germany's Parliament has elected Chancellor Angela Merkel to a third term as the leader of Europe's biggest economic power, nearly three months after an awkward election result forced her to put together a new governing coalition.<br /><br /></p>.<p>Merkel now heads a "grand coalition" of Germany's biggest parties, her conservative Union bloc and the center-left Social Democrats, which are traditional rivals. Parliament's lower house elected her yesterday as chancellor by 462 votes to 150, with nine abstentions<br /><br />The new government will move Germany somewhat leftward, for example introducing a national minimum wage, but will take a largely unchanged approach to Europe's debt crisis.<br /><br />It features Germany's first female defence minister, conservative Ursula von der Leyen, and sees former Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, return to his old job.<br /><br />Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a powerful figure in Europe's debt crisis, is staying on.<br /><br />The parties' effort to form a government after September 22 national elections, in which Merkel's conservatives came close to a parliamentary majority but saw their previous coalition partners lose all their seats, has been the longest in post-World War II Germany.<br /><br />It was extended by the Social Democrats' decision to put the coalition deal to a ballot of all their members. They won approval last weekend but some remain wary because the party emerged weakened from a previous grand coalition in Merkel's first term, from 2005 to 2009.<br /><br />At least 42 government lawmakers didn't vote for the chancellor yesterday but, given the new coalition's enormous majority, that is unlikely to worry her.<br /><br />Conservatives and Social Democrats hold 504 of the 631 seats. Germany's best-known ex-communist, Gregor Gysi, becomes the opposition leader; his hardline Left Party is the bigger of two left-leaning opposition groups.<br /><br />Germany's biggest-selling newspaper, Bild, declared on yesterday's front page: "Dear grand coalition, we are your extraparliamentary opposition now!" Editor Kai Diekmann wrote that "this parliament is too weak; its opposition too small and too left-wing."</p>