The new German Government has been officially elected for the next four years, after Chancellor Angela Merkel succeeded in bringing together the new Grand Coalition of Christian and Social Democrats parties, despite a near-three-month wait. The new government is one that the Germans had been expecting and, according to several pre-election polls, has been longing for. Merkel is to start her third term as the head of a new coalition. The chancellor and her new ministers will be sworn in on 17 December - almost three months after the general election. The Christian Democrats coalition will hold the bags of the interior, defense, finance, justice ministries. The Social Democrats, meanwhile, will take charge of the transportation, infrastructure, agriculture and economic development ministries.