this is deja vu news live from berlin anglo-american set to be sworn in for a fourth term as the german chancellor just moments from now german lawmakers back michael by a slim margin and germany's lower house of parliament now she's about to be sworn in these are live pictures from the border south america's confirmation puts an end to months of political paralysis we'll bring you full coverage and analysis of what your money and the world can expect during her fourth term.

i've sumi so much going to welcome to our special coverage as angela merkel begins her fourth term as chancellor months of political gridlock in germany have come to an end as merkel is set to be sworn in as head of a new coalition government we are expecting that ceremony to start shortly and we'll be covering it live as well just about an hour ago parliamentarians and nearly voted to reelect her as chancellor and here are pictures from the board decided this comes after medicals near a six month struggle to form a government you see her seated there she's being waiting there to be sworn in but she finally convinced her conservatives and the center left social democrats to come together for another grand coalition. if the bullets start boat was tighter than expected or dr i'm going to marry the doctor i'm glad he has the necessary majority of at least three hundred fifty five which is me and has been elected chancellor according to article sixty three paragraph two of the constitution if

mrs merrett do you accept the result. yes mr president i deal. with that merkel was officially collected to a fourth term mr chancellor. it's her third time in the green it is sort of. you know here we are watching chancellor merkel about to be sworn in having a bit earlier than we expected he was going on to school because it got to see it in the in an article six and twenty four b.c. and this is the president of the bundestag. doesn't mind the coffin was a distortion focused. on mere satin for him then that's one cause that's all because that's that has been this mask on for tidying my lips listening to this in half the first. he can get our money. zavala mia. chancellor merkel being sworn in for his fourth term saying there. i swear that i

will dedicate my afterwards to the well being of the german people promote their welfare protect them from harm opcode in the sun the basic law of the morals of the federation perform my duties conscientiously and do justice to all so help me god. we have a political person a need a hossa with us here in studio as well as veteran author and journalist vanna's on who's watching this with us her studios this is been a long time coming for the chancellor as indeed we have a government after one hundred seventy one days this is the longest period it's ever taken in post-war germany to form a government and now we're seeing the third edition of a circle grand coalition between uncle mackerels conservatives and social democrats . but i do hope you get the sense that the president found out so you're going to start who's speaking there was a close ally of the chance for many years as the finance minister you have watched

the chancellor now entering a fourth term how do you make her position now coming into this fourth term. again in a storage moment in german history no doubt about it and it's all false but also probably the last term this we have to say today in this very historic minute and. she will form a grand coalition a lot of observers have already said this morning it's a very small grand coalition and there's also been demonstrated in the election result today and she got three hundred sixty four votes which is only nine votes more than she actually needed and in other words thirty five members of our group of not voted for her but that will be forgotten very soon we'll see your. german government go back to normal very soon. will be

the undisputed chance before the time despite the fact that she will not be real lectern for years at least this is what everybody thinks at this very moment in berlin but she will have a very mixed cabinet with you for this is some. known faces. can i just say that we're just seeing. the who's of course the president of the parliament and if i heard correctly he's just imposed a fine on a member of the bundestag for not sticking to the rules and for making his vote public we'll have to look at the details that but that would be the first. as we're watching a chance america has just been sworn in as we said find the president of the bundestag well can surely see her there standing with her fellow lawmakers there in parliament and you know she's been called the teflon chancellor in the past but the

past for your suspect really have been particularly difficult for the chancellor this must be a moment of relief for her. i mean uncle americal is a scientist we mustn't forget that so she's looking for. solutions and her goal was to deliver a coalition government that is one of stability and she feels that she has to live with that and it took an extremely long time it's not her preferred option it's not a marriage of love it's a marriage of convenience and see her leaving there now. the bundesliga after being sworn in as you said you know this is been a difficult time forming the latest government we do have our correspondent michele who is standing by at the cover she was covering the vote for us a little earlier today and has been watching the proceedings for us from there michelle if you can hear us we can see you now tell us more about what the atmosphere has been like there are today. over these there's

a sense of relief after what was almost six months of trying to form a governing coalition even speaking to the parties who are the big losers of this entire process like the green party who were of course engaged in that first attempt to form a governing coalition with the pro-business free democrats and i'm going to merkel's party with the free democrats so infamously now dropping out at a very late stage just before christmas now even they are saying look it's time to get down to business here in germany germany has to be open for political business again they will go on to the opposition benches gladly it's interesting that we saw here in the industry one person who was just observing had to leave because he was holding up a poster and then of course we have the potential of issues on making their vote public so minor interruptions here but this feels a bit routine frankly german chancellor merkel being sworn in once again for

a fourth time a bit routine michelle a bit still lawmakers only voted narrowly in favor of her appointment how much support does she have within her coalition government. while she has the support she needs that's what we learned today as she got nine more votes than absolutely needed a speech and again not as. expected to be she's the parliamentary party leader of the social democrats she's expected to be the party leader of the social democrats soon and i asked her about this and she really said look she got the majority that she needed now it's time to move on but yes of course i mean it could have been thirty five people voting more but looking back in history i mean she had forty one not voting in her favor in the past this is by no means the most the least opposing votes that she got or abstentions or people not to be on her side not voting in her favor and this certainly isn't the closes for many hasn't seen that was nine hundred forty nine with no getting exists the exact number of two hundred two votes

. he needed so is there a sense of optimism there michel if and people you've been speaking to about the next government now going forward. well it's as you would expect everybody who's involved in the next government is after the fall of optimism but to be fair really the. opposition is well particularly the green party they all up for getting going talking to the alternative for germany who so change the political landscape here for lead to further fragmentation and a much sharper tone in this parliament here behind me they are saying that this basically is just the elite showing that it's same old same old that really nothing is changing at the top but one of course cannot forget that how close this really got to the brink of merkel not being able to form this coalition with that social democrats grassroots vote and it really was the grassroots of the social democrats who had the final say on this and who then came out actually two thirds in favor of

continuing what was in the past considered to be a political marriage not just without love but really left the system across so bruised and battered in this process having said that this is certainly sparing the the fates that we've seen with other similar social democratic parties in europe most prominent in france where they've almost been wiped out at the ballot box and that could've gotten worse for the social democrats but also for other parties if there had been fresh elections initially you mentioned the right wing populist alternative for germany party entering the parliament for the first time after september's elections with ninety two seats how did they observe the proceedings today seeing chancellor merkel being confirmed once again as chancellor. well really they see this as something that they will fight against that role really that we saw from alexander garland on election night where he said we will. senegal

of course being a parliamentary party leader and party leader he is saying we're going to hunt and that exactly is what the alternative for germany is doing and it keeps trying to focus on the very key issue that so is the d.n.a. of the alternative for germany and that is migration that is the fear of islam here in germany even a debate that was about empowering women came down to that very issue in the past so we're seeing a lot of potential he has a lot of heated debate and we're seeing a german chancellor merkel who has less of a majority than she did before she's coming from almost eighty percent to almost sixty percent in the bundestag but still a very solid majority to govern but let's not all the signs on the wall for you that this would be her last term in office for our viewers just joining us these are pictures that we're looking at are from the bundestag where chance of michael is just been sworn in for her fourth term earlier in the morning in german

lawmakers back chancellor merkel as we've been saying by a slim majority and confirmed her again for her fourth term and nina coming to you now do you think that chancellor merkel going forward has the government that she wants. no. no i mean it was pretty clear that she wanted a coalition government with the liberal f.t.p. policy and the greens but people doubt if negotiation talks and she has to go to the social democrats for help because she wants a stable government i mean let's not forget the other option would have been minority government she could have led a minority government but she didn't she shied away from that and we could also have had fresh elections but she knew that those were not really good options and you know as you've been speaking we're seeing the ministers of chancellor merkel's new cabinet a rising there to also be sworn in and they're not you know to ask you she's also shaken up her cabinet a bit hasn't she you know absolutely she broaden a number of fresh faces it's a good mixture norah of well known faces and you first is

a young girl faces old so some critics even. pointed one very outspoken critic. who will be integrated into the government as a health minister. a young critic. cool and she put in place some potential successes for her and that's the most that's the strongest signal. to the outside world i'm here she was very bright white addicted to the day to signal look at me i'm still here but. ready not to fade away definitely not not any time soon but if something happens then i have put in place some potential successes well we just saw the fence defense minister was left on the line arriving there she was also

a member of the previous cabinet for tents for michael so some things are staying the same but with the new faces enter what do you think we're going to see change in the way that this government goes forward well that's. still too early to do. the earlier this week was we have to speed things up this was the central message for merkel to the press conference and also supported by her new vice chancellor from the us been doing the show there will be the new finance minister and also by zero four will be the new minister of the interior and is also the chairman of the c.s.u. so this is the message we understood we got the message we have to move forward and you have to do it fast this is what we should expect and you know we also have to mention something we talked about earlier is that there's actually going to be a progress or if you halfway through this government term does that mean that we could see this government that has been taken taken so long and by the way for viewers joining us we're looking at pictures here of the ministers arriving that is

u.n. spawn there who are speaking about one of merkel's critics within her own conservative bloc she brought him into the cabinet to be the health minister and here we see some of the other ministers arriving but need it looking at this is looking at this nina do you think that this government that we've now seen come into power is going to last the full term well there's very few clothes that they've written and is pretty special because they're going to have a review next year already. and that is the new foreign minister just to put that to our viewers and you know he was replacing a social democrat replacing my god real as germany's chief diplomat and the social democrats let's also not forget they got. massive concessions from uncle americal in this coalition deal and they got the foreign ministry they got the finance ministry are extremely influential in those respects but yes next year that

a very very conservative bloc and the share a right to be here also a member of her cabinet what kind of policy decisions do you think you know we're just talking about that with one of seeing these ministers right there is olaf schultz you know the new finance minister believes are right there yes there are. he's also the acting leader of the social democrats we should say a lot of questions being asked about how she might change the finance ministry do you foresee any changes there is. in the future justice minister. some people have told me he is still a german finance minister so not too much hope for southern european countries for example to to see loosening of budgetary discipline for example although he is from the social democrats. economics minister he was. out on story and chancellor merkel. will of course be the strong man in the cabinet

as the finance minister and he made it very clear this monday that you both stick to a balanced budget by the way. legally but this was also a very important signal from him a lot of question a lot of people asking can we see any successors among the people this is an interesting figure just exiting the coffin psystar get fired from the social democrats thirty nine year old woman who was the mayor of really difficult district here in berlin and she's now the new hopeful voice from east germany and this is chancellor merkel's new chief of staff spoke to do a little bit earlier in the week he was here on monday talking about the massive challenges ahead and he was one of the coordinators of uncle americal z. refugee and immigration policy so he's an experienced. and we're watching here this is by the way at the german president's official drives events bellevue palace here in berlin that we're watching here and this is where the chancer was just

a short while ago before being sworn in you know for you know bring us up to date for the viewers who are joining us what's been happening today well i. was voted as the new. old and new four in the bundestag then she went to a lot of black cars traveling back and forth between the parliament and the president's office today and then. after she was she was voted in as the new chancellor by the german parliament she traveled to and got the permission from the german president and she traveled back and we saw all of the cabinet ministers being appointed and then getting their official documents from the president looking at the chancellor's fourth term van and we were speaking to a green party member of the european parliament earlier who said that one of chancellor merkel's greatest strengths is that she always manages to be underestimated do you agree salute i mean i've seen her over the past twenty years

and there was always the same nobody to grow seriously in the beginning and then they had to learn that she pushed away everybody who was in her way and she has a long long successful record to your end it's. not a good idea to underestimate. again she has lost. position is weakened if we look at some of the labels that she has been carrying of recent is like the climate germany is no longer at the forefront of climate change policy and of trying to prevent climate change from happening she's also lost the label of mrs europe because that is now a label mr europe is now the french president will have to wait and see. yes but you see as a chance he has a very narrow window of joining him on a mccall in his efforts to reform the european union next year we'll have european

elections coming up so maybe she can regain that label it just going there actually this friday so we'll have to see what the. well leaders of europe will have in common what signal they will send together but europe will be one defining point for this new grand coalition because it comes up very prominently in the contract in the coalition contract as the number one issue so the european project is important to them but of course the devil will be in the details and we'll have to see what it really really be when she goes to paris friday and even for viewers just joining us these pictures that you're seeing in the box of the right of the screen is inside the german president's official residence belleview palace here in berlin michael has been sworn in in the going to stock for her fourth term chancellor we're now waiting for the ministers now to

enter the palace and to be sworn in to join chancellor merkel's cabinet officially for her fourth term in government and we were just talking a little bit earlier no sooner she started her forced term as chancellor we're already talking about what will happen after chancellor merkel and a lot of speculation about the members of her cabinet here if you we might see any possible successors within this cabinet i think what is interesting is that she may become the first person as chancellor who actually decide when it's time to go and who are not voted out of office. for you know a lot of people expected that in her last term did not happen so we'll have to wait and see but i think we both agreed this is her last term and when she will end it will have to see. and we'll have to wait for the result of that review process that's going on next year of course when all the parties involved in this coalition government that nobody really wanted in the first place well have to sit down and

see whether or not they get the feeling that they're managing to reshape their own party's identity while at the same time being forced into this cabinet discipline and to get them but the new element of course is young that was not there or four years ago there are some potential successes now and that new and therefore she can sit back and see how things evolve. but. this is we look into the future we have to look into the present and we see big challenges for this new government not just domestically but especially. in the international arena and we see a potential trade war with the united states we see a foreign secretary in the united states who has just been fired because of iran deal that. we did trade war it's the most prominent

challenge but the iran deal might evolve into something even more complicated and complex and then we have the evolving crisis even today with russia the russia. the potential. we have to say. against the former russian spy. russian nerve agent and that isn't mentioned banks that you mentioned bracks and then we have with them as i said we have to complete a complex situation with russia and along these developments they need answers and they need answers from berlin and they need answers no not in two years or whatever that new government is hoping of course to. provide those answers lisa be able to provide those answers for viewers just joining did have you been watching our special coverage of what arkell starts her fourth term as chancellor she was

a sworn into office just a short while ago she took that oath of office from the bazaar president shortly here it is just a few minutes ago in the reichstag in front of germany's lower parliament this follows for reelection earlier today she needed a majority of three hundred fifty five votes to win and she came away with three hundred sixty four out of six hundred eighty eight votes cast that's just a nine vote margin of victory today as almost six months of political on certainty conservatives emerge from last september's federal elections as the largest party without a majority the social democrats initially refused to continue the previous grand coalition but after the failure of talks with two smaller parties that the greens the business the democrats the social democrats eventually reconsidered and that long awaited coalition deal was signed officially on monday now germany finally has a new government. inventor

looking at those pictures you know. we actually have a political correspondent with us now i understand she has been out the bundestag covering michelle and covering of the vote and also the swearing in just a few minutes ago michelle you were telling us that after this six months almost six months of political uncertainty there is a feeling that people are ready to get down to business there. yes and really on both sides both the now continuation of the so-called grand coalition between i'm going to see do you see as you and the social democrats but also opposition parties that you talk to that say the more moderate ones including the green party but also some voices here from the left benches the big exception really is the i'll turn to for germany who pretty much throughout the election campaign that we actually have started to forget about really became declared machall as they're not just their political enemy i mean she actually was shouted down at some of her own election people's people who claim not to be from the f.t.

but they were holding up if the post is so really we can expect some much tougher right here within the german bundestag coming ahead also with decreased majority of americans coalition coming down from almost eighty percent almost sixty percent. at the same time looking at the big picture it really is a continuation of the very stability that has made her political bond here in germany in europe and in the world and let's get some perspective from the european union side now we have our correspondent max off month standing by for us in strasburg max i can imagine that a lot of people there in strasburg are pretty relieved today to see today's happenings. you know we're here at the seat of the e.u. parliament that's in the plenary session so we got to talk to a lot of the parliamentarians here and no matter which faction they're from from the left from the right from the middle the greens whatever you name it they were

all expressing their gratitude that germany finally has a government again although of course not all of them are in agreement with the policy that this grand coalition will bring forward to the european union but the important thing is if you don't have a government in germany then you really can't get anything done because it's the most important country economically speaking politically it's up there with france so you need that and that's the that's the main message coming out of strasburg today all right of course not knox hoffman in fact we've also been speaking to our chief political editor michelle a cliff there who's been standing by for us in the bundestag michelle i thank you and also to our guest here with us in our studio you know has a from to give you politics and then as i'm a journalist and author thank you both for your analysis. and a reminder of the story that we've been covering you've been watching our special coverage as i let michael start her fourth term as chancellor she was sworn into office or short while ago taking the office for oath of office rather from the inside president. in front of germany's lower parliament this follows her

reelection earlier today she needed a majority of three hundred fifty five votes to win came away with three hundred sixty four out of six eighty eight votes cast. thanks for watching. a good. book. from fairy tales. to mayor challenged history. in northwestern germany is full of stories. nicole flinch discovers what makes this city one of the. next details you can. see the book

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