German president reelected

German President Horst Koehler has won a second five-year term, a victory that gives a symbolic boost to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s hopes of forming a centre-right government after a national election this September.

Mr Koehler, a former International Monetary Fund head and a member of Ms Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats, secured the required majority by a single vote in the first round of voting by a special parliamentary assembly yesterday.