| BERLIN
Former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was
elected Germany's president on Sunday, the 12th person to hold the largely
ceremonial post in the post-war era.
Steinmeier, a Social Democrat who had served as
foreign minister until last month, won 931 of the 1,239 valid votes by
lawmakers and representatives of Germany's 16 federal states. There 103
abstentions and 14 votes were invalid.
After Bundestag president Norbert Lammert announced
the results, all representatives held a standing ovation except for a few dozen
members of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
The anti-immigrant AfD, which has no lawmakers in the
lower house but holds seats in 10 of Germany's 16 state parliaments, is
forecast to be the third-largest party after a general election on Sept. 24.
The AfD filed its own candidate, who
received 42 votes.
"I
have faith in him to lead our country in these difficult times,"
Chancellor Angela Merkel, who is seeking a fourth term, said after the vote.
The
Kremlin said in a statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin had
congratulated Steinmeier in a telegram and invited him to visit Moscow.
Steinmeier last year drew criticism when
he said NATO's decision to stage military maneuvers in eastern Europe amounted
to "saber-rattling". His Social Democrats prefer a softer stance
towards Russia than Merkel's conservatives.
Russia wants the European Union to lift
sanctions imposed over its annexation of Crimea and backing of separatist
rebels in #eastern_Ukraine.
The German constitution mandates that a
special assembly is convened to elect presidents. It includes 630 lawmakers in
the Bundestag lower house and an equal number of representatives from the
federal states.
Current President Joachim Gauck steps
down on March 18.
(Additional reporting by Hans-Edzard Busemann in
Berlin and Jack Stubbs in Moscow; Writing by Joseph Nasr; Editing by Susan
Fenton and David Evans)
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