Germany Is About to Get Its First Female President

Germany is about to get its first female head of state. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has nominated Ilse Aigner, a 61-year-old Bavarian conservative, to become the country's next president — and with the backing of the governing coalition and the Greens, her election on 30 January looks all but assured. In 77 years of the Federal Republic, Germany has had 12 presidents. Every one of them has been a man.

Merz announced his choice on Sunday at a dinner for leaders of his centre-right Christian Democratic Union, and the nomination was formally confirmed by the party leadership on Monday with the support of the centre-left Social Democrats, the coalition partners. Aigner would succeed Frank-Walter Steinmeier, a Social Democrat who has held the largely ceremonial post since 2017 and is constitutionally barred from seeking a third five-year term when his term ends in March.

Who is Ilse Aigner?

Aigner is the speaker of the Bavarian state parliament and a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merz's Christian Democrats. Her biography is unusual for a German president. She trained as an electrical engineering technician and worked in electrical-systems development for the helicopter maker Eurocopter before entering politics — first in local government, then in the federal parliament, where she has sat since 1998, including a stint as federal agriculture minister. As Reuters reported, Merz praised her as "a president with dignity and heart, a president who brings people together, sets a direction and sparks debate".

Presenting herself on Monday, Aigner cast herself as a unifying figure in an increasingly polarised country, saying she hoped to represent a "strong centre" and to work to overcome divisions in German society. The subtext was hard to miss: Germany's mainstream parties are contending with the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany, which opinion polls suggest could become the country's biggest party after the next federal elections, due in early 2029.

How the election works — and why it is already decided

Germany's president is not chosen by voters. The head of state is elected by the Federal Convention, a special assembly convened solely for this purpose, made up of members of the lower house of parliament and delegates from Germany's 16 federal state parliaments. It meets on 30 January to choose Steinmeier's successor. By German political practice, the coalition parties agree on a common candidate — and with Merz's conservatives, their Social Democrat partners and the Greens all behind Aigner, she is, in the words of one report, "very likely to be elected".

The nomination also settles a disagreement inside the conservative bloc. The CSU put Aigner's name forward earlier this year, but the CDU held back from endorsing her while Merz considered alternatives, straining relations between the sister parties. That tension is now resolved — and Merz, presenting her on Monday, made a point of the history being made: "From my point of view, it is high time for a woman to hold this highest office for the first time." The presidency is largely ceremonial, but its holder sets a tone for the country. In January, for the first time, that tone will be set by a woman — and by an engineer from Bavaria who started her career building helicopters.

Sources: Reuters; Associated Press via Times of Israel.