Newly elected German parliament convenes

Germany’s newly-elected parliament was to convene for its first meeting today, one month after voters failed to give either centre-left or centre-right alliances a majority.

The lower house must by law convene at the latest 30 days after the election, when the term of Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s outgoing government officially expires.

However, with negotiations on a new government under Chancellor-designate Angela Merkel expected to last until mid-November, Schroeder’s cabinet is to stay in office on a caretaker basis.

Politicians were today expected to only elect the new parliament president and his deputies.

The parliament president’s job is expected to go to Norbert Lammert, a politician with Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union.

That post, like the chancellorship, traditionally goes to the party with the strongest parliamentary group.

The CDU and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union, have 226 seats in the new parliament – only just ahead of the Social Democrats, who have 222.