Berlin. The CDU leadership has nominated the Bavarian state parliament president Ilse Aigner as a candidate for the federal presidential election on January 30th. The party executive committee accepted the proposal from Chancellor and party leader Friedrich Merz with long-lasting applause, as the German Press Agency learned from participants. Merz decided on the 61-year-old at a preliminary meeting with the executive committee on Sunday evening. If she is elected, she would be the first woman and first CSU politician to head the state.
The coalition parties CDU, CSU and SPD have a majority of around 50 votes in the Federal Assembly, which is made up of the 630 members of the Bundestag and the same number of voters from the states.
The CSU has been behind Aigner for a long time, and the SPD executive committee also supported the nomination this morning. “She is an experienced, down-to-earth politician and has the important ability to bring people together across party and social boundaries,” the committee said in its justification.
The Greens have also already expressed their sympathies. This means that Aigner's election in the first round is very likely.
At around 1 p.m. Merz and Aigner want to make joint statements to journalists at the CDU headquarters. They will then fly to Munich, where they will take part in a ceremony marking the 20th anniversary of the Bavarian capital's main synagogue together with CSU leader Markus Söder.
Then the election campaign begins for Aigner. She will possibly introduce herself to the parliamentary groups in the Bundestag on Tuesday, which will then meet regularly. It is unclear whether she will also join the AfD and the Left.
AfD parliamentary group leader Alice Weidel expects Aigner to also be seen by members of the “second largest faction in the German Bundestag, the largest opposition faction and, according to current surveys, the strongest political force in the country”. “This is a question of democratic culture and manners and one of respect for the millions of voters we represent,” she emphasized.
Either way, the AfD wants to put forward its own candidate, a man “from the middle of society,” as the party says. However, he is considered to have no chance because of the clear majority.
The Left has not yet decided for or against its own candidacy. Party leader Ines Schwerdtner criticized the coalition members for deciding among themselves who should become Federal President. “I would have liked the Union and the SPD to look beyond their own ranks and look for a candidacy that would bring the country together,” she said.
Green Party leader Franziska Brantner is betting that Aigner can overcome rifts in society. “I hope that as Federal President she will also build bridges and bring our country together,” she told Funke Medien. The Greens have yet to finally decide whether the people of Aign will vote.
Merz had kept a low profile in the debate for a long time, but then last Monday initially spoke out in favor of a woman - without naming a name. In the past few days, agreement had already been reached in the CDU about Aigner's candidacy. For formal reasons, Merz wanted to propose it to the CDU committees first.
Merz and Aigner have known each other since 1998 and, according to those close to the Chancellor, have been “close personal friends” for 25 years. Merz has his holiday home in her constituency on Tegernsee. They see each other there regularly and have a common circle of friends. Merz had already spoken to Aigner about the candidate question in August, but had not yet decided on it at that point.
Unlike many of her successful male colleagues, Aigner is not considered a classic power politician who uses her elbows to fight for office. It is precisely because of this calmness that she is respected and valued across party lines.
The trained electrical engineer from Upper Bavaria was in federal politics as Agriculture Minister from 2008 to 2013 - until the then Prime Minister Horst Seehofer brought her to Munich. There she first became economics minister and then construction and transport minister before becoming president of the state parliament. In the CSU, she has been leading the largest district association in Upper Bavaria for 15 years now - without anyone there ever being a threat to her.
Her rise to the top of the state is a novelty in two respects. In the 77-year history of the Federal Republic of Germany there has never been a female federal president. All twelve previous heads of state were men. There has never been a Federal President who came from the CSU. Six came from the CDU, three from the SPD, two from the FDP and one, Joachim Gauck, was non-party.
