Angela Merkel elected to fourth term as German chancellor

Germany's parliament has confirmed Angela Merkel as the country's next leader. The conservative Merkel will govern in a grand coalition with the Social Democrats. But the vote margin was very tight - a mere 9 votes.

Members of Germany's Bundestag voted 364 in favor, 315 opposed and nine abstentions.

"I accept the vote," Merkel told parliamentarians.

Merkel's conservatives won September's election, taking 33 percent of the vote, ahead of the SPD with 20.5 percent. But both of those figures were down sharply from 2013, due in part to the rise of the far-right populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which took 12.6 percent of the vote.

Her fourth term ends more than five months of political wrangling and uncertainty that weakened Merkel's governing coalition.

As The Associated Press notes, Merkel faces the simultaneous challenges of managing a potential trade war with the U.S., finding "common ground with France and others in shaping the European Union's future," all while juggling the competing demands of a "fragile" coalition government.

Last week party leaders of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) announced that party members had endorsed a deal to form a new governing coalition with Merkel's center-right Christian Democrats.

As part of the deal, the SPD now gains more influence over policy than before. The deal includes handing the SPD control of Germany's finance ministry. The SPD "is likely to relax the strict fiscal discipline that prevailed" under the previous finance minister, who "enforced the austerity imposed on crisis countries like Greece and Portugal in return for eurozone aid," The New York Times says.

AfD co-chairman Alexander Gauland characterized the vote as "two loser parties circling the wagons to govern the country whatever way they can." Green party co-chairwoman Annalena Baerbock told German TV, "The grand coalition lacks any desire to shape society." 

And Left Party co-chairwoman Katja Kipping tweeted: "Only 9 votes over the line. Merkel and the new government have stumbled out of the blocks."