German Special Assembly to Elect New President

Germany - The German government, alongside two of its major opposition parties, will jointly nominate a former human rights activist as the president of the country.

Chancellor Angela Merkel released a statement on February 19th stating Joachim Gauck will be backed by the Social Democrat and Green parties.

Former President Christian Wulff resigned after being plagued for two months about allegations he received kickbacks from friends while he governed Lower Saxony.

Until a special assembly - which in this case is just a formality given the cross-party backing of Gauck - elects the President, Speaker of the Parliament Horst Seehofer is temporarily filling the position.

Merkel praised the backing, adding in her statement "Let's not forget that we have churchmen like Gauck to thank for the success of East Germany's peaceful revolution."

Gauck was one of several pastors who helped to bring an end to the split between East and West Germany, as well as preserve and expose the crimes of the East German secret police force.

German President Refuses to Resign

While expressing his refusal to resign, German president Christian Wulff admitted Wednesday he made a “grave mistake” by trying to stop a newspaper from publishing a story that would embarrass him.

"The call to the chief editor of Bild was a grave mistake, for which I am sorry and for which I apologize,"

The voice-mail in question was sparked by Wulff letting a low-interest rate on his home loan. He told the editor-in-chief there would be “war” if the article was published.

Despite pressure to resign as president and the distraction it poses for Chancellor Angela Merkel, who nominated him for the position, he said “[I will not resign] because I had great support in the past weeks from many citizens, my friends and employees. I like fulfilling my duties [as president] and have taken the job for five years and want to show at the end of the five years that I was a good, successful president. This has been a learning process. I went from being a state premier to president very quickly, without time to adjust or prepare. It all went very fast."

Murkel has, for the moment at least, decided to continue backing Wulff.