The Daily Telegraph

Merkel seals fourth term in office, but narrow vote of confidence is far from reassuring

- By Justin Huggler in Berlin

ANGELA MERKEL was sworn in for a fourth term as German chancellor yesterday, almost six months after she suffered damaging federal election losses.

Mrs Merkel won a vote of confidence in parliament just over a week after securing a coalition deal, ending a period of almost six months in which Germany was left without a government. For the first time, Mrs Merkel’s notoriousl­y publicity-shy husband, Prof Joachim Sauer, a quantum chemist, attended the vote in parliament although he brought along a laptop computer so he could continue working.

Mrs Merkel beamed with joy and relief as applause filled the Bundestag chamber, where Herlind Kasner, her 89-year-old mother, was also among the well wishers.

The chancellor will travel to Paris on Friday for talks with Emmanuel Macron, the French president, as the two leaders seek to restore the Franco-german axis as the main driving force in the European Union.

She returns to power with her authority diminished, however, after the longest period of coalition negotiatio­ns in post-war German history.

In a sign of the rocky road ahead, the vote of confidence in Mrs Merkel was passed with a majority of just nine as she failed to win the support of 35 MPS from her coalition.

“That was close and is a bad omen. This coalition has got off to a bad start and will not last for three-and-a-half years,” Alexander Mitsch of her Christian Democrat party (CDU) said.

“There were more dissenting votes than I expected,” Andrea Nahles of Mrs Merkel’s main coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD) said.

In another unsettling omen, a protester tried to approach Mrs Merkel as she left parliament and had to be wrestled to the ground by police.

 ??  ?? Mrs Merkel’s mother and husband, centre
Mrs Merkel’s mother and husband, centre

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