Germany's ailing Free Democratic Party has picked the 74-year-old Wolfgang Kubicki as its new leader, as the pro-business party seeks to recover from a run of election defeats.
The veteran politician prevailed over Member of the European Parliament Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann in a vote at the party conference in Berlin, earning 390 votes to her 259.
Kubicki is now tasked with achieving what the previous party chairman, Christian Dürr, failed to do since his election a year ago: to lead the FDP out of its growing irrelevance and restore it to a position as a serious political force.
