Germany's ruling coalition struggles to overcome divisions in German presidential election

BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel's coalition tried to downplay divisions on Thursday, a day after her candidate was narrowly elected as Germany's new president, but political commentators persisted in describing the poll as a public rebuke.

Her coalition has been plagued by political bickering since it came into office eight months ago. Despite having a comfortable majority on paper, her presidential candidate Christian Wulff failed to garner an absolute majority to become president in two consecutive rounds of voting yesterday. Eventually he squeaked through in the third round after a grueling nine-hour procedure.

"Angela Merkel was not a candidate in this election, but she is the loser of the day," commentator Heribert Prantl wrote in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. The daily newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that many in her center-right coalition used the election for the largely ceremonial role of president to show anger with Merkel and Vice Chancellor Guido Westerwelle of the Free Democrats.

On top of the public political backbiting, the euro crisis has also forced Merkel's government to push through two unpopular aid packages and announce painful budget cuts. Germany is the biggest economy in the Eurozone. No agreement has been reached on overhauling the health care and tax systems.

But both of her coalition partners, the Bavarian Christian Social Union and the Free Democrats, insisted the extent of the rebellion should not be overplayed.

"Starting today, we will join forces to push forward our political goals," the Free Democrats' general secretary Christian Lindner told the daily Bild.

Merkel's coalition, which had officially accepted the a 51-year-old Wulff as presidential candidate, should have given her enough votes to elect her president in the first round. The coalition controlled 644 seats in the special assembly of 1,244 federal and state representatives electing the president.

But Wulff, a deputy chief in Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, missed 44 coalition votes in a first ballot and 29 in a second. Only in a third round did Wulff reach an absolute majority of 625 votes and even then not all coalition lawmakers voted for him.

Merkel has not yet commented on the large number of dissenters.

Political scientist Werner Patzelt warned Merkel could risk losing her power unless she is able to bridge the conflicts in her coalition.

"If Ms. Merkel wants to escape that fate, she needs to try for two things: the soul of her party and the respect of her coalition partner," Patzelt told the daily Handelsblatt.

Free Democrat Lindner insisted that it was the result, not the process, of electing a president that was important and the coalition should get back to business as soon as possible.

Along the same lines, the Christian Social Union's general secretary Alexander Dobrindt told Bayerischer Rundfunk radio that the election might have been "facilitated in a more elegant way, but in the end all went well."

Now, it is important to get back to work as "great things remain to be done," he said mentioning measures to fight the economic crisis and to consolidate the budget.

"People rightfully expect answers and that is why now it is work, work, work," he said.