German President Horst Koehler won a second five-year term on Saturday, a victory that gave 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. That was enough to see off a challenge from centre-left Social Democrat Gesine Schwan, who was bidding to become Germany's first female president - a largely ceremonial job. The popular 66-year-old won 613 votes in the 1,224-member parliamentary assembly, made up of lower-house lawmakers and delegates nominated by state legislatures. Ms Schwan, who had hoped to force further rounds of voting, won 503. The presidency is supposed to be above the political fray and carries little real power, but Ms Schwan's challenge shook up the usually genteel election process and raised doubt over Mr Koehler's re-election.
The vote came before Ms Merkel and Social Democrat Frank-Walter Steinmeier, her foreign minister, face off in a Sept 27 national election in which both hope to end their tense 'grand coalition' of Germany's biggest parties. As opposition leader, Ms Merkel installed Mr Koehler in 2004 with the help of the pro-business Free Democrats, her preferred future coalition partner. They backed Mr Koehler's re-election, along with a smaller centre-right group. Ms Merkel and the Free Democrats' leader, Guido Westerwelle, appeared together to congratulate Mr Koehler. 'Every election has its own dynamics, but it is no secret that we are working to achieve a majority together,' Ms Merkel told reporters. 'Today we achieved what we wanted together.' Senior conservative ally Horst Seehofer described the outcome as 'a clear signal' for a centre-right victory later this year. Still, Ms Merkel failed to secure such a victory in 2005, a year after Mr Koehler was first elected. Mr Koehler himself said he was 'looking forward to the next five years.' He said Germany has 'a lot of work ahead of us' to emerge from the global crisis that has hit its export-driven economy hard, 'but we will make it'.