German chancellor Friedrich Merz nominates countrys first female president in Ilse Aigne
Germany is set to get its first female president after Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s party nominated Ilse Aigner, a center-right politician with appeal to liberals, to become the country’s head of state next year.Aigner presented herself Monday as a unifying figure in an increasingly polarized country, saying that she hopes to represent a “strong center.” She said the broad political support taking shape for her is “an important signal against populist and extremist forces in our country.”The new head of state will be elected Jan.30 when a special parliamentary assembly chooses a successor to President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who is constitutionally barred from seeking a third five-year term.
It is made up of the 630 members of the national parliament’s lower house and an equal number of delegates from Germany’s 16 state parliaments.Aigner, 61, is the speaker of Bavaria’s state legislature and hails from the Christian Social Union, the smallest of three parties in the national government and part of Merz’s conservative bloc, which has long pushed her candidacy.After it won official backing Monday from leaders of Merz’s Christian Democratic Union and the center-left Social Democrats, she looks all but assured of election.The governing parties will have a majority in the assembly that elects the president.
Aigner also has received a positive reception from the opposition Greens.“From my point of view, it is high time for a woman to hold this highest office for the first time,” Merz said as he presented Aigner.He said her background as an electrical engineer would also be a first for a president, reflecting “the reality of millions of people in our country” in manual work.Aigner has been active in politics since her late teens and was elected to the Bavarian state legislature in 1994.
She served as Germany’s agriculture minister from 2008 to 2013 under Chancellor Angela Merkel.She then served as Bavaria’s economy minister and transpo...