BERLIN, Oct. 26 (BUS) – Angela Merkel neared political retirement Tuesday after receiving her official certificate of dismissal as chancellor after 16 years in office, although she will lead a transitional government until her successor is sworn in, the AP reports.
Hours earlier, Merkel attended the opening session of Germany’s new parliament in Berlin, taking a seat in the VIP lounge where recently elected lawmakers met for the first time. Merkel, who won a seat in the Bundestag for the first time 31 years ago, did not run again in the September 26 elections.
Lawmakers elected Barbal Bass, a centre-left SPD member, as speaker of the 736-member House of Representatives. She succeeded Wolfgang Schäuble, 79, the conservative and former finance and interior minister, who was also the longest-serving member of the last parliament, having been first elected in 1972.
Bass, whose party narrowly defeated Merkel’s centre-right union bloc, has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009. The 53-year-old was the deputy leader of her party’s parliamentary group in the last parliament and spokesperson for health, education and education. Research.
Bass told fellow lawmakers that she would work for a fairer representation of women in Parliament. She is the third woman to hold the presidency of the Bundestag since its establishment in 1949.
While the Bundestag includes more women after last month’s elections, there is still a long way to go for women to reach parity in the national legislature. The German news agency (dpa) reported that more than a third of the new MPs, or 34.7%, are women, compared to 31.4% in the previous parliament.
The three parties hoping to form Germany’s new government said last week that they aimed to appoint the country’s next chancellor in early December, but acknowledged they faced a complex task.
The Social Democrats, Greens and the pro-business Liberal Democrats opened formal coalition talks after an initial deal earlier this month, which outlined their priorities but left many open questions.
The German coalition talks are a complex matter, resulting in an agreement outlining the details of the government’s four-year programme. It has tended to get longer over the years as the country’s political landscape has fragmented, meaning elections rarely produce a parliamentary majority for traditional allies.
If the negotiations succeed, the new government will send Merkel’s bloc into the opposition after 16 years at its head. Her potential successor will be SPD’s Olaf Schulz, Vice-Chancellor and Finance Minister since 2018.
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier handed Merkel her impeachment certificate, thanking her for leading the country through difficult times, particularly during her last four-year term.
Referring to the coronavirus epidemic, Britain’s exit from the European Union, and the US government under President Donald Trump, he said, “They have little interest in the international system and the transatlantic partnership.”
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