Germany picks ex-foreign minister Steinmeier as president
BERLIN (AP) — A special assembly elected former German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier by an overwhelming majority Sunday to be the country's new president.
The German president has little executive power, but is considered an important moral authority and symbol of the country as its host for visiting dignitaries.
Steinmeier, a 61-year-old Social Democrat, had the backing in the election of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's "grand coalition" of center-right and center-left parties.
The presidential vote was likely one of the last moments of coalition unity ahead of a parliamentary election in September in which Merkel is seeking a fourth term.