German presidential election, 2017

German presidential election, 2017

12 February 2017

Nominee Frank-Walter Steinmeier Christoph Butterwegge Albrecht Glaser Party SPD Die Linke AfD   Nominee Alexander Hold Party Freie Wähler

Incumbent President Joachim Gauck Independent

The 16th election of the President of the Federal Republic of Germany will, unless the office falls vacant prematurely, be held on 12 February 2017.^[1] The President will be elected by the Federal Convention, an electoral body that consists of all members of the current Bundestag and an equal number of electors, who are elected by the sixteen state parliaments.

The President-elect will enter office on 18 March 2017 and will take the oath of office the same day in a joint session of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.

Composition of the Federal Convention

If until the date of the election no premature election of the Bundestag or a state parliament becomes necessary, the Federal Convention will presumably be composed as follows (theoretically members of state parliaments could vote for electors of differing parties, so the number of state electors is only an assumption):^[2]

In the Federal Convention, a candidate needs a majority (at least 631 votes) to become President. If no candidate gets a majority of votes in the first two ballots, a plurality is sufficient on the third ballot.

Candidates

Every member of the Federal Convention (members of the Bundestag and state electors, once they are elected by their respective state parliament) can propose candidates for the presidency. It is required that the President is a German citizen and at least 40 years old. Every candidate has to declare his consent to running. Candidates can be proposed before the Federal Convention and (theoretically) during the Convention before every ballot. If the President-elect is member of a legislation or a government on federal or state level, he has to resign from that office before the start of his term. A sitting President is not allowed to run for a third consecutive term.

On 6 June 2016 incumbent Joachim Gauck announced he would not seek re-election after his first term.

Chancellor Angela Merkel originally wanted to nominate Green politician Marianne Birthler, and as the CDU/CSU and the Greens control a majority in the Federal Convention, Birthler's election would have been secured. However, Birthler after some time decided not to run.^[3]

On 14 November 2016 the governing parties CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party have named the current Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Vice Chancellor of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier as their consensus candidate. The other parties will likely either endorse Steinmeier, or name candidates of their own, to express discontent with the consensus candidate. In any case Frank-Walter Steinmeier is the clear favorite to win the election, because the parties endorsing his candidacy hold round about 930 votes in the Federal Convention.

Alternative for Germany has proposed the former treasurer of Frankfurt Albrecht Glaser, and the Free Voters have named the judge and TV celebrity Alexander Hold. Both are widely considered to have no real chance of winning the presidency, because their respective party has only few electors in the Federal Convention and it is unlikely that they will receive endorsements from other parties. ^[4][5] On 20 November 2016 the The Left nominated the political scientist Christoph Butterwegge.^[6]

References

German presidential elections
Weimar Republic (1919–1933)	1919 1925 1932
East Germany (1949–1960)	1949 1953 1957
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