Aigner president bid: Germany's first woman?

Germany is on course to elect its first female head of state. On Monday, 9 November, the CDU's federal executive board formally backed Ilse Aigner, the CSU politician who has led the Bavarian state parliament since 2018, as the candidate of the conservative Union parties to succeed Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. With the Aigner president candidacy now also supported by the SPD and recommended by the leaders of the Greens, her election on 30 January 2027 looks all but certain. She would be the first woman, and the first politician from the Bavarian CSU, in the highest office of the Federal Republic.

The decision ends a search that dragged on for months and strained relations between the CDU and its smaller Bavarian sister party. For people living in Germany, it also offers a look at how the country chooses its head of state: not by a popular vote, but through a special assembly that meets only for this purpose.

How the Aigner president nomination came about

CSU leader Markus Söder first suggested Aigner back in April. Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who also chairs the CDU, stayed silent on names for a long time. Because the CDU is the strongest force in the electoral body, people around Merz repeatedly stressed that his party had the right to make the proposal. Aigner's momentum grew at the CSU party conference in Munich in late October, where delegates cheered her as their unofficial candidate. Only on Monday, 2 November, did Merz say publicly that he wanted a woman in the post, still without naming anyone.

Over the following days, more and more CDU state leaders, including the premiers of Saxony and Thuringia, came out in favour of Aigner, and on Friday, 6 November, several outlets, among them ZDF and Reuters, reported that the CDU leadership had settled on her. According to the dpa news agency, Bundestag President Julia Klöckner had been seen as her strongest rival within the CDU. The slow process drew sharp criticism. Green parliamentary leader Britta Haßelmann said the search was becoming more undignified by the day, and CDU foreign policy expert Roderich Kiesewetter accused Merz of a lack of political instinct on ZDF.

On 9 November, the CDU presidium and executive board followed Merz's proposal unanimously, and he presented Aigner at the party's Berlin headquarters, the Konrad-Adenauer-Haus. Merz said Germany would gain "a Federal President with dignity and heart". In an interview with the ARD programme tagesthemen the same evening, he defended the long process as orderly and harmonious and said he would do it the same way again.

What Aigner wants to do as president

Aigner presented herself as a candidate of a "strong centre" who wants to help close divisions in society. "I don't want to stand above the citizens, I am part of them," she said, according to a dpa report carried by t-online, and she promised to speak in clear and understandable language. She also warned that democracy is under attack and that right-wing extremist ideologies are gaining ground, as quoted by the CDU. With a nod to the long wait, she remarked that the chancellor had made the decision "quite exciting, for me too".

Former chancellor Angela Merkel, the first woman to lead a German government, called the choice historic, according to t-online. In the 77-year history of the Federal Republic, all twelve heads of state have been men: six came from the CDU, three from the SPD, two from the FDP, and one, Joachim Gauck, had no party. A president's term lasts five years.

The Aigner president vote on 30 January

The president is chosen by the Federal Convention (Bundesversammlung), which meets in Berlin on 30 January 2027. It has 1,260 members: the 630 members of the Bundestag and an equal number of delegates sent by the 16 state parliaments. These delegates do not have to be politicians. ZDF reported that climate activist Luisa Neubauer, singer Hartmut Engler and journalist Constantin Schreiber are among the people nominated this time.

The governing CDU, CSU and SPD hold a majority of about 50 votes in the convention, so the Aigner president vote should succeed even without help. The SPD presidium formally endorsed her on the morning of 9 November, and the leaders of the Green party and parliamentary group wrote to their delegates recommending that they back her. That makes a win in the first round likely. The AfD has said it will put up its own candidate, described by the party only as a man "from the middle of society", who is considered to have no chance. The Left party said it would discuss a possible candidate of its own in its party bodies.

The first test of Aigner's approach to the political fringes came quickly. On 10 November, she was due to introduce herself to the parliamentary groups of the Union, the SPD and the Greens in the Bundestag. According to tagesschau, she turned down an invitation from the AfD after AfD politician Beatrix von Storch had mocked her nomination online, and the Left had not invited her. AfD co-leader Alice Weidel criticised the refusal.

Who is Ilse Aigner?

Aigner was born on 7 December 1964 in the district of Rosenheim in Upper Bavaria and is 61 years old. After secondary school, she trained as a radio and television technician, an unusual background for a top politician. According to Reuters, she later worked in electrical systems development for the helicopter maker Eurocopter. She entered the Bavarian state parliament in 1994 and moved to the Bundestag in Berlin in 1998.

From 2008 to 2013, she served as federal minister for food, agriculture and consumer protection under Merkel. She then returned to Munich, where she became Bavaria's economy minister and later, briefly, its minister for housing, construction and transport. Since 2018, she has been president of the Bavarian state parliament. For about 15 years she has also led the CSU in Upper Bavaria, the party's largest district association. Commentators across the media describe her as down to earth and approachable, and Merz and Aigner have been close friends for many years, according to dpa.

What the Aigner president choice means for expats

The German president has a largely ceremonial role. The office holder signs laws, formally appoints and dismisses ministers, represents Germany abroad and can speak out on social issues as a moral voice. State visits are a large part of the job, as Steinmeier's recent trip to Egypt, Ghana and Angola showed. Day-to-day politics, including decisions on taxes, benefits and immigration rules, stays with the federal government and parliament, so a change at the top will not change the rules that affect your life in Germany.

Foreign residents have no direct say in the election, and neither do German citizens: there is no public ballot. If Aigner is elected as expected, she would take office after Steinmeier's term ends on 18 March 2027, according to the business weekly WirtschaftsWoche. Her focus on bringing people together and on standing up to extremism could matter to many immigrants at a time of tense debates about migration. For background on the current federal government, see our report on Merz's cabinet reshuffle earlier this year.