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Germany’s parliament is meeting to elect Angela Merkel for a fourth term as chancellor, ending nearly six months of political drift in Europe’s biggest economy.
Merkel needs the support of a majority of all lawmakers to be re-elected on Wednesday, meaning that she has to win at least 355 votes.
The coalition of her conservative Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister party, the Christian Social Union and the centre-left Social Democrats has 399 seats, says an AP report.
The same parties have governed for the past four years but Wednesday’s parliamentary vote comes 171 days - nearly double the previous record - after September’s election, in which they all lost significant ground.
The Social Democrats initially planned to go into opposition.
Merkel will head a much-changed new Cabinet.