“It is high time that a woman reaches the office of head of state,” said Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
The German government has officially nominated 61-year-old Ilse Aigner, current president of the Bavarian state parliament, for the highest constitutional office in the country.
The Federal Convention, the body responsible for electing the president, will convene on January 30. If elected, Aigner would become the first woman and the first member of the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU) to hold the presidency. The Federal Republic has had 12 presidents to date, all of whom have been men.
Aigner’s candidacy has secured backing from many political parties. In addition to her own party, the CSU, she is supported by Chancellor Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU), the governing Social Democrats (SPD), and the opposition Greens, according to Seznam Zprávy.
Even before the Chancellor officially nominated her early this week, the governing Social Democrats and the opposition Greens were already backing her potential candidacy. Aigner does not intend to seek the votes of the Left party or the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the latter of which was designated as demonstrably right-wing extremist by the German domestic intelligence service last year.
Merz described Aigner as a candidate who will perform her duties with “dignity and heart,” as reported by Seznam Zprávy. According to Seznam Zprávy, Aigner previously served as a member of the Bundestag and as Minister of Agriculture and Consumer Protection in two of Angela Merkel’s cabinets between 2008 and 2013. Public support for Aigner grew so large that Merz could not ignore it.
Commentators note that Aigner’s nomination is a major triumph for Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder. Söder had consistently advocated for her candidacy in his public appearances since the spring, emphasizing that Germany had never had a female president or a representative from the Bavarian CSU in the role.
Within Bavaria, Aigner was frequently viewed as a potential successor to Söder, who faced minor internal party unrest earlier this year.
The opposition party Alternative for Germany (AfD) announced on Saturday that it will field former professional footballer Thomas Berthold as its candidate. Berthold, 62, played for clubs including Bayern Munich, Eintracht Frankfurt, and AS Roma, and was part of the West German team that won the 1990 World Cup in Rome.
Born in Hanau, Hesse, he began his professional career in 1982 at Eintracht Frankfurt before playing in Italy and later ending his career in 2001 at the Turkish club Adanaspor. During his career, he appeared in 332 Bundesliga matches and 62 international games for West Germany and the unified German national team.
The German president is elected indirectly by the Federal Convention, which consists of members of the Bundestag and an equal number of representatives sent by the 16 federal states. With 630 current members of the Bundestag, the total body will comprise 1,260 electors.
While the office is primarily ceremonial, it carries moral weight. The Left party has also indicated plans to propose an independent candidate, though no name has been confirmed, Novinky reported. The current president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, concludes his second term in mid-March.
Worth a look