After the loan scandals of the last several weeks, Christian Wolf stepped down as president at the end of last week.
Last night Joachim Gauk was approved by all parties as the new president. Gauk, a civil liberties campaigner in the old German Democratic Republic. Last night, the Union caved and accepted the Coallition's nomination of Gauk.
He is now the official candidate for the open post, but he still has to be voted in by parliament. The Blacks (Christian Democrats) have a slim majority in the parliament, so it was very important, that they obtain widespread approval among the other parties for Gauk.
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschla ... 80,00.html(Couldn't find anything on BBC yet).
Bloody hell if we called a politician black in this country we would be hung out to dry. 
