Germany to elect ‘anti-Trump’ Steinmeier as new president

BERLIN: Billed as Germany’s “anti-Trump,” the center-left former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is Sunday set to be elected as the new ceremonial head of state.

The 61-year-old, who regularly polls as Germany’s most popular politician, will represent the EU’s top economy abroad and act as a kind of moral arbiter for the nation.

For the Social Democrats (SPD), his appointment raises the



party’s profile just as its candidate Martin Schulz, the former European parliament president, readies to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in September elections.

Steinmeier is expected to receive a large majority of votes after Merkel’s conservatives, lacking a strong candidate of their own, agreed to back him to replace incumbent Joachim Gauck, 77, a former pastor from ex-communist East Germany.