Germany's parliament has elected Angela Merkel for her fourth term as chancellor, putting an end to nearly six months of political drift in Europe's biggest economy.

Politicians voted 364-315 on Wednesday to re-elect Ms Merkel, who ran unopposed. There were nine abstentions.

The coalition of Ms Merkel's conservative Christian Democratic Union, its Bavaria-only sister party the Christian Social Union and the centre-left Social Democrats has 399 seats.

The same parties have governed for the past four years but putting together the new coalition has been hard work.

Wednesday's parliamentary vote comes 171 days - nearly double the previous record - after September's election, in which they all lost significant ground.

The Social Democrats initially planned to go into opposition.

Ms Merkel will head a much-changed new cabinet.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.