After the abrupt resignation of former president Horst Köhler one month ago, Christian Wulff, the 51-year-old governor of Lower Saxony state and a deputy leader of chancellor Merkel's conservative party has been elected as president of Germany today.
The bland candidate of the conservative-liberal coalition government was elected with simple majority after more than nine hours in the third and final voting round. Wulff failed to secure an absolute majority in the first two voting rounds, which comes as an embarrassing loss of face for chancellor Angela Merkel, who had promoted his candidacy.
In the end Wulff could only be elected, because the radical left wing party, which emerged from the former East-German Communist stateparty 'SED', abstained from voting Joachim Gauck, a well known former East-German civil rights activist and investigator on crimes perpetrated by the infamous East-German secret service 'Stasi'. Gauck had been promoted by Social Democrats and Greens and enjoyed higher support in the German population.
It is the first time, that the representative position of the German president has been filled with a professional career politician. Wulff is considered to be a close friend and aide of German chancellor Angela Merkel.
