Germany’s Steinmeier on course for 2nd term as president

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s environmentalist Greens have come out in favor of a second term for President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. That leaves the head of state well-placed to win another five years in office. The Greens on Tuesday became the last of the three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s new government to endorse Steinmeier. He was a longtime member of Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats. The president will be elected on Feb. 13 by a special assembly made up of the members of parliament’s lower house and representatives of Germany’s 16 states. The governing parties are expected to have a majority in the assembly. Steinmeier announced that he would seek a second term last May.