BERLIN, Nov 22: Angela Merkel became Germany’s first woman and youngest post-war chancellor on Tuesday, ending months of political uncertainty and ushering in a fragile new coalition of left and right that must prove it can revive Europe’s biggest economy.

The 51-year-old Angela Merkel, a pastor’s daughter who started her political career after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, was confirmed in Germany’s top post by a parliamentary vote in which 397 of the Bundestag’s 614 members backed her — easily enough for the majority she needed in the lower house.

She becomes Germany’s eighth post-war chancellor and the first one to have grown up in the former communist east.

“Dear Dr Merkel, you are now the first-ever elected female head of government in Germany. That is a strong signal for many women, and certainly for some men too,” joked parliamentary speaker Norbert Lammert, who swore Ms Merkel into office.

Her predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, who initially refused to cede his post when her conservatives narrowly beat his Social Democrats in a Sept 18 election, was the first to congratulate Ms Merkel after the result was read out to a hushed chamber.

Mr Schroeder later handed over the Chancellery keys to Ms Merkel in an emotional ceremony in which he wished her luck and she thanked him for modernizing Germany.

Ms Merkel has vowed to cut unemployment and repair ties with Washington, strained by Mr Schroeder’s vocal opposition to the Iraq invasion. But she enters office weaker than she had hoped and with a majority of Germans convinced her unwieldy alliance, the first ‘grand coalition’ since the 1960s, will not last a full four-year term.

Ms Merkel’s confirmation as chancellor comes two months after a tight election she had been expected to win easily, and a half year after Mr Schroeder shocked the nation by calling for early polls.

The result left Ms Merkel with little choice but to form a coalition with the SPD, arch-rivals of her party for decades.

—Reuters