Angela Merkel elected as the leader of Germany for the fourth time

Berlin, March 14: Germany’s parliament has elected Angela Merkel for her fourth term as chancellor, putting an end to nearly six months of political drift in Europe’s biggest economy.

Lawmakers voted by 364 to 315 in favor of re-electing Merkel, a humbling start as the coalition of her conservatives and the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) has 399 votes in the Bundestag lower house of parliament.

“I accept the vote,” a beaming Merkel, 63, told lawmakers. In office since 2005, she has dominated Germany’s political landscape and steered the European Union through the economic crisis. Merkel will head a much-changed new cabinet, with the governing parties - which are traditional rivals - keen to send signals of renewal. There are new faces in the most important posts, the finance, foreign, economy and interior ministries.

But her authority was dented by her decision in 2015 to commit Germany to an open-door policy on migration, resulting in an influx of more than one million people.

She must now juggle competing for domestic demands from her conservative CDU/CSU alliance and the SPD, just as Germany is locked in a trade stand-off with the United States.

“It is a good start for Germany to have a stable government... after so many months, there is now a big incentive to get down to work with energy,” Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said.