BERLIN, October 19 (RIA Novosti) - German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier was selected by Social Democrats on Saturday as the candidate to challenge Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel in next year's election.
At its special convention in Berlin, Germany's center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) endorsed Steinmeier, 52, as its candidate in next year's election to face current Chancellor Merkel of the center-right Christian Democrats (CDU). Steinmeier won 95% of the secret ballots cast by the convention's delegates.
The two parties currently share power in a coalition government, following the elections in 2005, in which neither the CDU nor the SPD won enough seats to govern with their traditional small-party allies.
The SPD congress also elected party veteran Franz Muentefering as the SPD's new chairman.
