German Parl assembly to elect President; Steinmeier favourite

The German president has little executive power, but is considered an important moral authority. And, on Monday, a German parliamentary assembly will elect the country's new president.

The new head of state will succeed Joachim Gauck, a 77-year-old former pastor and East German pro-democracy activist, who announced last year that he wouldn't seek a second five-year term because of his age.

However, respected former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeir, who last year called Donald Trump one of the world's "hate preachers" the overwhelming favourite to win.

The president is elected by a special 1,260-member assembly made up of the 630 lawmakers in parliament's lower house and an equal number of representatives from Germany's 16 states.

Steinmeier has the support of Chancellor Angela Merkel's "grand coalition" of centre-right and centre-left parties.

Between them, Merkel's conservative Union bloc and the centre-left Social Democrats, her junior coalition partners, hold 923 seats, which should assure Steinmeier's election.