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It took a month-long “national farce” and three rounds of voting in the Bundestag for Christian-Dem Christian Wulff to eke in, on 30 June, as the nation’s newpresident. He succeeds Horst Köhler, who resigned, to the country’s surprise, at the end of May. Rammed through by Angela Merkel, Wulff won’t have it easy, predicts the Süddeutsche Zeitung: his rival for the post, Joachim Gauck (independent but backed by the Social Democrats), was far more popular. But the chancellor is the real “loser of the day”: without “authority” or “sympathy”, her hold on the helm is now shakier than ever.
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