Chancellor Angela Merkel won overwhelming parliamentary backing today for her plans to send up to 850 more German troops to Afghanistan, after a heated Bundestag debate was disrupted by an anti-war protest.
Despite opinion polls that show most Germans oppose the Afghan mission, parliament voted by a 429-111 margin to back Ms Merkel's request to increase the German force to 5,350 troops. The troop increase was less than Nato had hoped for but reflects strong public opposition to the deployment in Germany.
The clear-cut vote followed months of nationwide debate about the increasingly assertive role German troops are playing in Afghanistan. They first went as peacekeepers in 2002 and have the third largest contingent in the Nato-led mission.
It was a rare piece of good news for Ms Merkel, who has been plagued by one dispute after another in her four-month-old coalition, and may quell debate on the merits of the deployment.
Her centre-right government got 44 votes more than the 385 seats it holds and won support from some opposition deputies in the centre-left Social Democrats. Another 46 deputies in the 622-seat lower house abstained.
Just before the vote, deputies of the opposition Left party were ejected for mounting an anti-war protest. They stood up holding posters with names, ages and jobs of civilians they said were killed in a US air strike in September which Germany ordered.
The Afghan government has said the strike near Kunduz, the most deadly operation involving German forces since the second World War, killed at least 69 Taliban fighters and 30 civilians.
Norbert Lammert, president of the parliament, first told the 76 Left party deputies to put down their posters. They refused and Mr Lammert ordered them to leave.
Reuters