German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier handed out dismissal letters to Chancellor Angela Merkel and her cabinet ministers, in a symbolic ceremony ending their service in the outgoing government in Berlin on Tuesday.
SOT, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German President (German): “With the constitution of the nineteenth German Bundestag, today concludes your government period and thereby, for the third time in the German federal republic’s history, it also concludes the period of a big coalition government.”
SOT, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German President (German): “The German federal government was also demanded as an actor at European level, in the common and unconditional will to hold together the peace and unity of the European Union. In the midst of the centrifugal forces from the Euro to the refugee crisis, from internal challenges in Poland and Hungary to Brexit, you managed to maintain a stable course, and also despite intense debate within the federal government”
SOT, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German President (German): “And finally, you have also become internationally responsible – in crises and conflicts from Ukraine to Mali, in politics against Iran and Turkey, to the bloody civil war in Syria.”
SOT, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, German President (German): “This morning I already asked you, Federal Chancellor, to carry on with business until a new federal government has been appointed, in accordance with Article 69, Section 3 of the Federal Constitution.”