BERLIN: Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is poised to become Germany’s next president, after the two main parties in Chancellor Angela Merkel’s grand right-left coalition agreed to back his nomination, party sources said Monday. On Monday, Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) agreed on Germany’s most popular politician, Steinmeier, whose name had been put forward by his Social Democratic Party. Party sources said there is unlikely to be opposition to the plan. Steinmeier, 60, has emerged in recent months as one of the most strident critics of US President-elect Donald Trump. The foreign minister has also been frank in expressing Germany’s disapproval of Turkey’s widening crackdown following a failed military coup in July.

Source: Manila Times November 14, 2016 09:39 UTC