The CSU vice-chairman and EVP leader Manfred Weber has spoken out in favor of the Bavarian state parliament president Ilse Aigner as the successor to Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
“Ilse Aigner brings with her a huge wealth of political experience,” Weber told the news magazine “Focus”. “She knows Europe, she was a federal minister and has now been the very successful President of the Bavarian state parliament for many years.” More importantly: "She has her heart in the right place. We need a Federal President who can close rifts and reconcile people."
Weber called on CDU leader Friedrich Merz and CSU leader Markus Söder to decide quickly. “My recommendation: suggest Ilse Aigner, and Germany will have a good president.” He accepted that all committees discussed and deliberated internally. “But now a decision has to be made.”
CSU regional group leader Alexander Hoffmann also campaigned for Aigner on Tuesday. “I perceive Ilse Aigner to be held in very, very high regard in the CDU,” he said before the meeting of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Union faction leader Thorsten Frei (CDU), who was standing next to him, did not comment.
Söder had already campaigned for Aigner in the previous weeks. The SPD also spoke out in favor of the CSU politician. As the AFP news agency reports, Aigner now also has supporters in the CDU and the Greens.
CDU does not exclude Aigner
Merz decided on Monday to propose a woman for the highest state office. The CDU has not yet named a name. General Secretary Franziska Hoppermann did not rule out that Aigner would still be in the running. For Merz, the candidate comes “from the ranks of the Union and is therefore a joint proposal from the two Union party leaders,” she told the broadcasters RTL and ntv. There are “many different candidates who are ideally suited for this and are suitable”.
Frei announced a decision “in the very near future”. He defended the fact that the Chancellor had only made up his mind late: discussions had been going on for some time and the process would soon be completed. In the end, Merz wants a candidate “who has recognition and approval across party and faction boundaries.”
Federal Family Minister Karin Prien, Hesse parliamentary group leader Ines Claus, Bundestag President Julia Klöckner and former party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer are mentioned as possible candidates from the CDU.
The party committees are expected to make a decision at the beginning of next week. According to information from the “Rheinische Post”, Merz wants to talk to the party leadership about it at a dinner in the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus on Sunday evening. The group is scheduled to meet again on Monday, after which the CDU federal executive board will meet.
Poll: Merkel ahead of Aigner and de Maizière
For 70 percent of German citizens, it doesn't matter whether a man or a woman takes office. This was the result of the “Trend Barometer” from the Forsa Institute for RTL and ntv. 28 percent expressly want a female Federal President, two percent want a man. In August, 19 percent wanted a woman.
50 percent consider former Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU), 36 percent Aigner and 33 percent the former Interior Minister Thomas de Maizière (CDU) to be suitable. Forsa surveyed 1001 people.
Green party leader Britta Haßelmann emphasized that the time was “ripe for a woman at the top”. “Many women in our country, in politics, in business, in society, are underrepresented, including here in parliament,” she said in Berlin. “And I would like to see a woman take this position at the head of the state as Federal President.”
AfD parliamentary director Bernd Baumann considers all candidates in the CDU/CSU to be unsuitable. He did not want to give his own name in an interview with WELT TV. But there has to be someone who doesn't continue “this firewall policy,” he said, also with a view to Steinmeier's term in office.
