Federal presidential election: AfD sends ex-footballer Berthold into the race for Bellevue

Berlin. Former soccer world champion Thomas Berthold is to run for the AfD in the election of the Federal President. Party leader Tino Chrupalla announced this on Saturday on Platform X. “Germany needs a truly non-partisan Federal President who spreads a new sense of unity,” he said. Berthold is well-known and popular and he stood up against the harmful Corona policy during the pandemic, “without regard to personal losses”.

Chrupalla also referred to the 1990 World Cup title in Italy. The former national player made 62 international appearances and played for VfB Stuttgart and FC Bayern Munich, among others. During the Corona period, he appeared at a rally organized by the “Querdenken 711” initiative in Stuttgart. He criticized the measures taken against the pandemic at the time.

The Federal Assembly will elect the successor to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on January 30th. The CSU politician Ilse Aigner is likely to get the majority for the highest state office. The nomination of its own candidate by the AfD has more of a symbolic meaning. The AfD does not have its own majority in the Federal Assembly. At the 2022 Federal Assembly, the AfD nominated the former head of the Values ​​Union, Max Otte, who was therefore later expelled from the CDU.