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Merz to Nominate Ilse Aigner for Steinmeier Successor

By Drooid · Oct 29, 2026 · How we work

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Summary

Chancellor Friedrich Merz is expected to propose the governing parties’ nominee to succeed President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
CDU/CSU and SPD together control 682 of the 1,260 Federal Convention votes, ensuring a comfortable majority.
Ilse Aigner, CSU president of the Bavarian State Parliament, is viewed as the leading presidential candidate.
An August Forsa poll found 74% indifferent to the president’s gender, 19% preferring a woman, 5% a man.

History

In June 2010 the governing CDU-CSU-FDP coalition nominated Lower Saxony premier Christian Wulff for president; he secured 625 of 1,242 Federal Convention votes and became Germany’s youngest head of state. He resigned in 2012, after which opposition activist Joachim Gauck succeeded him. That coalition-backed pattern persisted, and today Chancellor Friedrich Merz intends to propose CSU leader Ilse Aigner, echoing the 2010 precedent.

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In June 2010 the governing CDU-CSU-FDP coalition nominated Lower Saxony premier Christian Wulff for president; he secured 625 of 1,242 Federal Convention votes and became Germany’s youngest head of state. He resigned in 2012, after which opposition activist Joachim Gauck succeeded him. That coalition-backed pattern persisted, and today Chancellor Friedrich Merz intends to propose CSU leader Ilse Aigner, echoing the 2010 precedent.

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