Berlin: German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been re-elected as her party's leader with a landslide majority of 98 per cent of the vote.
The backing by the delegates of her conservative Christian Democratic Union today gives Merkel a strong mandate to pursue her policies in fighting off Europe's debt crisis and contesting the national elections due next year.
"I'm flabbergasted and moved," Merkel told a cheering audience at her party's annual convention in Hannover.
Merkel has led the party since 2000 and has governed Europe's biggest economy as the country's first female chancellor since 2005.
PTI
First Published: Tuesday, December 04, 2012, 22:20