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By Gareth Jones and Alice Baghdjian BERLIN (Reuters) - Germans resoundingly elected Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist from communist East Germany, as president of the European Union's largest country on Sunday, posing a potential political headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

According to an opinion poll, 80% trust Gauck, yet two thirds think he'd be an "uncomfortable" president for the country's political parties.

I had no idea Germany was even electing a new president, so I was totally surprised when I read news headlines today morning.

Speaker of Bundestag lower house of parliament says 72-year-old won 991 votes in federal assembly German MPs have elected Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist from east Germany, as the president of the EU's largest country by a large majority in a first round of voting.