USD 1.7

Baku 23 °C

Paid news

AZ RU EN FA FR

Dark mode

POLITICS

NEWS

World

Economics

Sport

Culture news

Analysis

Blogs

Company

TOP 10

© 2004 - 2026 All copyright are reserved.

Europe

Home page

Europe

Anti-Communist pastor set to become German president

18 March 2012 03:15 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Joachim Gauck is poised to become Germany’s third president in just two years on Sunday after winning support from the country’s main political parties, but the feisty theologian may prove an awkward partner for Chancellor Angela Merkel, APA reports quoting Reuters.
Merkel reluctantly accepted Gauck for the mainly ceremonial post after her coalition ally joined opposition parties last month in backing him to replace Christian Wulff, who resigned in a scandal over financial favors.
Unlike Wulff, a former lawmaker from Merkel’s ruling centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU), the 72-year-old Gauck has no party affiliation. But he is known for speaking his mind - with the eloquence of a seasoned preacher - on controversial issues.
Eighty percent of Germans trust Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist, according to an opinion poll by Infratest published on Saturday.
Yet two thirds said they thought he would be an "uncomfortable" president for the country’s political parties.
In Germany, the president is chosen not by voters but by a special federal assembly comprising all 620 members of the Bundestag lower house of parliament and an equal number of delegates from the country’s 16 regions.
Gauck’s election is assured as he has the support of the three ruling coalition parties including the CDU and of the opposition Social Democrats and Greens.
"We expect a big majority (for Gauck)," said Frank-Walter Steinmeier, leader of the opposition Social Democrats.
His only opponent is Beate Klarsfeld, 73, an anti-Nazi activist endorsed by the small Left Party.
The German head of state has little executive power but is supposed to provide moral leadership, a role for which Gauck, a prominent figure in the peaceful protest movement that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, seems well-suited.

Dark mode

POLITICS

NEWS

World

Economics

Sport

Culture news

Analysis

Blogs

Company

TOP 10

© 2004 - 2026 All copyright are reserved.

Europe

Anti-Communist pastor set to become German president

Europe

Starmer could run for NATO Secretary General

Britain has zero active submarines at sea for now

UK guarantees $1 billion World Bank loan to Ukraine

Scuffle breaks out during Georgian parliament session, proceedings suspended - PHOTO

NEWS FEED

ATTENTION!

ATTENTION!

ATTENTION!