German parliament elects Wolfgang Schaeuble as speaker

By Ayhan Simsek

BERLIN (AA) - Wolfgang Schaeuble, a close ally of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, has been elected new parliament speaker on Tuesday, as the Bundestag held its first session since the elections last month.

The 75-year old politician, who served as finance minister for the last eight years, was elected with 501 votes in the 709-seat parliament.

He was not only backed by his Christian Democrats colleagues, but also by a majority of opposition lawmakers.

The far-right Alternative for Germany, AfD, voted against Schaeuble’s candidacy.

The conservative politician had described the AfD as “a disgrace for Germany” ahead of the Sept. 24 elections, due to its anti-immigration and anti-Islam rhetoric.

Merkel’s conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party Christian Social Union (CSU) won 33 percent of the vote in the federal elections and gained 246 out of the 709 seats at the parliament.

The Social Democratic Party (SPD) has 153 seats, followed by the far-right AfD, which has 92 seats.

Merkel’s CDU/CSU is currently holding preliminary talks with two other minority parties, the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDF), with 80 seats, and the Greens (67 seats), to form a three-way coalition government.