It's not every day that German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul (CDU) stands in front of his government plane in Berlin and becomes the CDU's domestic politician. “I repeat the urgent warning to all members of my party to now exercise the necessary restraint in the federal presidential debate,” he said. Wadephul said what the Chancellor - who was currently traveling in Asia - wanted to but could not say publicly there. Everyone keep quiet now.
This was preceded by wild days of public speculation and debate about who could or should succeed incumbent Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Led by CSU boss Markus Söder, who praised the Bavarian state parliament president Ilse Aigner (CSU) early on and then later suggested it. Söder recently said on ARD: "The CSU has never nominated a Federal Chancellor or the Federal President." One could argue, Söder added, that it was now the CSU's turn. It's your turn? Is that the currency when searching in such difficult political times? To be there?
Ines Claus new in conversation
Söder pushed Ilse Aigner forward. In the case of the bigger sister CDU, due to the majority and house rule in the Union with the first right to make proposals, loud silence. Motto: We also have great women. At the beginning of the week, the name Ines Claus, CDU parliamentary group leader in Hesse and deputy CDU federal leader, emerged from CDU circles.
The public asked “Ines, who?” and from Chancellor circles in distant Asia it was said: Merz had neither made a decision nor made a proposal. Ines Claus is now in the line of possible CDU candidates such as Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, Family Minister Karin Prien and ex-CDU leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer.
Parts of the CDU want their own candidate
In any case, the process surrounding possible CDU candidates shows how nervous and partly annoyed they are in the CDU that the CSU is so openly promoting its candidate Aigner. For CDU leader Merz, the case is now becoming another question of power in his own camp, because it is not only CDU women who are insisting on having their own candidate.
Representatives of the SPD, the Greens and the Left Party are now also speaking loudly. The Green Omid Nouripour, after all Vice President of the Bundestag and currently on a trip to China with incumbent Steinmeier, speaks publicly in favor of the CSU candidate Aigner. Nouripour told ARD that he expected Friedrich Merz to not only look into his own ranks in order to consolidate his ailing power in the CDU. More than that. "Whether Ilse Aigner becomes a candidate at all depends on whether the CDU thinks exclusively about party politics or puts the country forward."
Politics could have learned from mistakes
A good hundred days before the upcoming federal presidential election on January 30th, the personnel debate is boiling over in public. This is the confusing and party-politically charged starting point. Former Federal President Horst Köhler had similar experiences before his term in office.
Even then there were public disputes and debates. Motto: "Horst, who?" Köhler later said that almost every federal presidential election was associated with wrangling behind and in front of the scenes. "It's nothing unusual. But nothing that should necessarily be repeated," Köhler complained at the time. But everything repeats itself.
Politics could have learned from wounds and wrong turns. Even back then, when Köhler was elected, there were arguments and arguments. Gesine Schwan (SPD) ran against him twice, including debates. Schwan said at the time that what frustrated her was a public debate that always knew how everything was. “That always bothers me because it’s never certain what everything is like,” said Schwan at the time.
Now again, nothing is certain. Incidentally, Horst Köhler unexpectedly resigned in 2010. Chancellor Angela Merkel then wanted Christian Wulff (CDU) against resistance. He had good intentions as president. At least this: "The Federal President has to bring the citizens' expectations together a little when the parties declare that they have everything under control. But the citizens realized that they don't have that at all," Wulff once said about the role of a Federal President.
Tendency towards spontaneity
Today, citizens once again have the impression that politics doesn't have everything under control. By the way, Wulff also left at that time after two years as head of state. And then came the “President of the Heart,” who had run against Wulff two years earlier and lost: Joachim Gauck.
It was on a Sunday evening at the beginning of 2012 that the Chancellor announced this appointment, which also came as a surprise to Gauck. "I got off the plane and was in the taxi when the Chancellor reached me. And I haven't even washed yet," said Gauck at the time as he stood with Angela Merkel in the Chancellery in the evening.
The personnel planners for the head of state in this country apparently tend to be spontaneous. By the way, at that time the SPD supported the independent Joachim Gauck and did not nominate its own SPD candidate. Because they wanted the best, the then SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel said smugly: "It was more important to us to find a non-partisan and widely recognized candidate than just to look for the party's tactical advantage."
CDU wants to make a proposal in November
And today? Looking for the best. A federal president. At the beginning of November, Chancellor Merz apparently invited the CDU women to the Chancellery. On November 9th, the CDU presidium wants to discuss the candidate question and make a proposal.
Does the party register matter? Hubertus Heil (SPD) still has hope. "There is a way to agree on a candidate. If there is good will, it cannot be about party-tactical advantages." It's about a head of state that is supported by broad sections of the population, said the SPD politician on ARD.
Incidentally, Heil, like most Social Democrats, would vote for Ilse Aigner (CSU). But then we're back to the dispute between the CSU and CDU and party tactics in general. As with almost every federal presidential election. In this respect, what the first Federal President, Theodor Heuss, once said still applies: "There is no point in talking around things."
