		<div class="wpcnt">
			<div class="wpa">
				<span class="wpa-about">Advertisements</span>
				<div class="u top_amp">
							<amp-ad width="300" height="265"
		 type="pubmine"
		 data-siteid="111265417"
		 data-section="1">
		</amp-ad>
				</div>
			</div>
		</div><p>A special parliamentary assembly is meeting to elect Germany’s president for the next five years.</p>
<p>Incumbent Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has been endorsed by most mainstream political parties, is seeking a second term as the largely ceremonial head of state.</p>
<p>The president will be elected by a special assembly of 736 people made up of the members of parliament’s lower house and representatives of Germany’s 16 states.</p>
<p>The Social Democrats, the Greens and the pro-business Free Democrats – the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition – are expected to have a majority in the assembly.</p>
<p>Germany’s biggest opposition party – the Christian Democratic Union and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union – also said it will support Mr Steinmeier’s re-election, leaving the head of state well placed to win another five years in office.</p>
<p>The 66-year-old announced that he would seek a second term last May, before the parliamentary election that brought Mr Scholz’s coalition to power and at a time when his chances of re-election looked far from certain. The president said he wanted to help heal divisions widened by the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p>Before becoming president, Mr Steinmeier served two stints as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s foreign minister and was previously chief of staff to Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.</p>
<p>Germany’s president has little executive power but is considered an important moral authority.</p>
<p>After a messy parliamentary election result in 2017, Mr Steinmeier helped prod politicians to form a new coalition government rather than holding out for a new vote.</p>
<p>Other than Mr Steinmeier, three other candidates are running for Germany’s highest office, though none of them has a serious chance of winning.</p>
<p>Gerhard Trabert, 65, a physician, is running for the Left Party, Stefanie Gebauer, 41, was nominated by the Free Voters party, and Max Otte, 57, is the candidate of far-right Alternative for Germany party, even though he is a member of the CDU – a fact that prompted his own party to call for him to leave or face possible expulsion.</p>
			<div style="padding-bottom:15px;" class="wordads-tag" data-slot-type="belowpost">
				<div id="atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68cd4bc7f0ed0">
					<script type="text/javascript">
						window.getAdSnippetCallback = function () {
							if ( false === ( window.isWatlV1 ?? false ) ) {
								// Use Aditude scripts.
								window.tudeMappings = window.tudeMappings || [];
								window.tudeMappings.push( {
									divId: 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68cd4bc7f0ed0',
									format: 'belowpost',
								} );
							}
						}

						if ( document.readyState === 'loading' ) {
							document.addEventListener( 'DOMContentLoaded', window.getAdSnippetCallback );
						} else {
							window.getAdSnippetCallback();
						}
					</script>
				</div>
			</div>
Discover more from London Glossy Post
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
