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		</div><p>A German parliamentary assembly is electing the country&#8217;s new president today.</p>
<p>The country&#8217;s former foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is the overwhelming favourite to succeed Joachim Gauck, a 77-year-old former pastor and East German pro-democracy activist who is not seeking a second five-year term because of his age.</p>
<p>The German president has little executive power, but is considered an important moral authority.</p>
<p>The president is elected by a special 1,260-member assembly made up of the 630 lawmakers in parliament&#8217;s lower house and an equal number of representatives from Germany&#8217;s 16 states.</p>
<p>Mr Steinmeier, Germany&#8217;s foreign minister until last month, has the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel&#8217;s &#8220;grand coalition&#8221; of centre-right and centre-left parties.</p>
<p>Between them, Mrs Merkel&#8217;s conservative Union bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats &#8211; her junior coalition partners &#8211; hold 923 seats, which should assure Mr Steinmeier&#8217;s election.</p>
<p>The presidential vote is likely to be one of the last moments of coalition unity ahead of a parliamentary election in September in which Mrs Merkel is seeking a fourth term. Both sides hope to end the &#8220;grand coalition&#8221;.</p>
<p>Mr Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, has long been one of Germany&#8217;s most popular politicians. As former Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder&#8217;s chief of staff, he was one of the main architects of Schroeder&#8217;s 2003 package of economic reforms and welfare cuts.</p>
<p>Under Mrs Merkel, he served twice as foreign minister, from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 until this year, with a stint as opposition leader in between. He has won respect for his persistence in trying to resolve the long-running crisis in Ukraine.</p>
<p>Mr Steinmeier, 61, is normally studiously diplomatic, but strongly criticised Donald Trump during the US election campaign.</p>
<p>Asked in August about the rise of right-wing populism in Germany and elsewhere, Mr Steinmeier criticised those who &#8220;make politics with fear&#8221;.</p>
<p>He cited the nationalist Alternative for Germany party, the promoters of Britain&#8217;s exit from the European Union, and &#8220;the hate preachers, like Donald Trump at the moment in the United States&#8221;.<br />
There are four other candidates in Sunday&#8217;s election.</p>
<p>The opposition Left Party nominated Christoph Butterwegge, a political science professor who opposed Schroeder&#8217;s economic reforms. A deputy leader of Alternative for Germany, Albrecht Glaser, also is running, as is Alexander Hold, nominated by the small Free Voters party in Bavaria, and Engelbert Sonneborn, the father of a satirist.</p>
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