Merkel elected as Germany's first female chancellor

Angela Merkel was today elected as Germany’s first female chancellor, taking power at the helm of an unwieldy alliance of the right and left that now officially has the job of turning around Europe’s biggest economy.

Politicians voted 397 to 202 with 12 abstentions to make Merkel Germany’s eighth leader since the Second World War, succeeding Gerhard Schroeder, whose seven-year government of Social Democrats and Greens was ousted by voters on September 18.