German parliament elects new speaker

BERLIN, March 25 (KUNA) -- The German parliament (Bundestag) on Tuesday elected former conservative minister Julia Klockner as its new speaker.
Some 382 MPs voted for the ex-minister of agriculture, while 204 rejected and five others abstained, according to the German parliament's media office.
The move came after Klockner's Christian Democratic Union of Germany Party had won the country's parliament elections on February 23.
Klockner, 52, who was agriculture minister from 2018 to 2021, has thus become the fourth woman to be elected as head of the German legislature.
The post of parliament speaker, in protocol, is Germany's second-highest, behind the president and ahead of the chancellor. It traditionally goes to the strongest group in parliament's lower house, or Bundestag. (end) anj.mt