Merkel, 59, who is now set to govern Europe’s top economy for another four years, was re-elected by 462 members of the Bundestag lower house of parliament, with 150 voting against and nine abstentions.
“I accept the election result and thank you for your trust,” said Merkel, dressed in a black trouser suit, having accepted a bunch of flowers before shaking the hands of supporters.
Eighty-six days after she swept to victory in general elections but failed to grab an outright majority, the Bundestag vote, although secret, came as no surprise.
With 504 of the 631 seats, Merkel’s conservatives and their new centre-left partners, the Social Democrats (SPD), hold a huge majority under their hard-fought ‘grand coalition’ deal.
She must now be confirmed by President Joachim Gauck at his palace before returning to the Bundestag to be sworn in as Germany’s only third post-war chancellor to win a third mandate.
Merkel on Monday promised “solid finances, secure prosperity and social welfare” and said that “a grand coalition is a coalition for grand tasks — we want to make sure that the people in 2017 are better off, even better off, than they are today”.
She has defended the time spent haggling over policy and posts with an initially reluctant SPD as time well spent, voicing appreciation on signing the coalition pact Monday “that we listened to each other”.