The Third Merkel cabinet (

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

: ''Kabinett Merkel III'') was the 23rd

Government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive, and judiciary. Government is ...

of the

Federal Republic of Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated between ...

during the 18th legislative session of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Common ...

. Installed after the 2013 federal election, it left office on 14 March 2018. It was preceded by the

second Merkel cabinet The Second Merkel cabinet (German: ''Kabinett Merkel II'') was the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany during the 17th legislative session of the Bundestag. Installed after the 2009 federal election, it left office on 17 December 2013 ...

and succeeded by the fourth Merkel cabinet. Led by Chancellor

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Opp ...

. The government was supported by a coalition of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU) and the

Social Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

(SPD).

Sigmar Gabriel Sigmar Hartmut Gabriel (born 12 September 1959) is a German politician who was the Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs from 2017 to 2018 and the vice-chancellor of Germany from 2013 to 2018. He was Leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germa ...

(SPD) replaced

Philipp Rösler Philipp Rösler (born 24 February 1973) is a German physician and former politician who served as federal minister of health from 2009–2011 and federal minister of economics and technology as well as vice-chancellor of Germany from 2011 to ...

(FDP) as

Vice Chancellor of Germany The vice-chancellor of Germany, unofficially the vice-chancellor of the Federal Republic of Germany (), officially the deputy to the federal chancellor (), is the second highest ranking German cabinet member. The chancellor is the head of governm ...

and became Federal Minister for Economics and Energy. The CDU received five ministries in addition to the positions of Chancellor, as well as Chancellery Chief of Staff and Minister for Special Affairs. The SPD controlled six ministries and the CSU three. Although the CSU received a disproportionate share of ministries relative to its weight in the Bundestag, the six most powerful ministries were divided equally between the CDU and the SPD: the CDU controls the ministries for finance, internal affairs and defense, while the SPD controls the ministries for foreign affairs, economics and energy, as well as justice and consumer protection. The term of office of the third Merkel cabinet officially ended with the constitution of the 19th Bundestag on Tuesday, 24 October 2017. Merkel and her cabinet ministers received their discharge papers from the Federal President

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician serving as President of Germany since 19 March 2017. He was previously Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as Vice Chan ...

on the same day. In accordance with Article 69 of the

German Constitution The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (german: Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland) is the constitution of the Germany, Federal Republic of Germany. The West German Constitution was approved in Bonn on 8 May 1949 an ...

and at the request of the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

, the cabinet remained in office as the caretaker government until a new government is formed. Bundesregierung (Tobias Koch)

Composition

Caretaker government following the 2017 election

After the German federal election held on Sunday, 24 September 2017, SPD leader

Martin Schulz Martin Schulz (born 20 December 1955) is a German politician who served as Leader of the Social Democratic Party from 2017 to 2018, and was a Member of the Bundestag (MdB) from 2017 to 2021. Previously he was President of the European Parliam ...

declared that the SPD had decided to be a part of the opposition during the next legislation period. However, after coalition talks between the Union (

CDU/CSU CDU/CSU, unofficially the Union parties (german: Unionsparteien, ) or the Union, is a centre-right Christian-democratic political alliance of two political parties in Germany: the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) and the Christian Soc ...

), FDP and

the Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

failed, SPD politicians reconsidered, leading to coalition negotiations between the CDU/CSU and the SPD. On 8 February 2018, the negotiations resulted in a provisional agreement to form a grand coalition, which was approved by the party members of the SPD and led to the formation of the new government on 14 March 2018.

References

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External links

Cabinet of Germany
(English)

(English) {{DEFAULTSORT:Cabinet Merkel III Meklel III Merkel III 2013 establishments in Germany Merkel III Angela Merkel Grand coalition governments