Treichler Blog

German Chancellor Angela Merkel was humiliated Wednesday, when its candidate for president, conservative Christian Wulff was elected only in the third and final round.

Wulff, aged 51, who until now served as Minister-President of Lower Saxony, in the northwest, was elected with 625 votes, while the opposition Social Democratic candidate, supported by Greens, Joachim Gauck, aged 70, received 494 votes. A total of 121 voters abstained. The other two candidates, the extreme leftist party Die Linke, Lukrezia Jochimsen, and the neo-Nazi NPD pulled in before the final round. For the third round, was required only a relative majority in the Federal Assembly, a quorum consisting of 1,244 electors, representing 622 members of the Bundestag (lower house of Parliament) and as many delegates appointed by the 16 regional parliaments . In the first two rounds, requiring an absolute majority, Christian Wulff failed to be elected, although his party, consisting of Christian Democrats and Liberals, have theoretical 644 votes. At the end of this last round, Christian Wulff became the tenth president of federal law. But this election was a political blow to Angela Merkel, whose conservative-liberal coalition that runs from October is affected by deep divisions. Christian Wulff succeeds Horst Köhler, who resigned on May 31, after a controversy generated by his statements about the German military engagement abroad.