Election of the German Federal President in 1984

Election of the German Federal President in 1984
Candidates				Votes in%
Richard von Weizsäcker			80.0
Luise Rinser			6.5
Abstentions			11.3

Richard von Weizsäcker

Luise Rinser (right)

On May 23, 1984, the former Governing Mayor of Berlin , Richard von Weizsäcker , was elected the sixth German Federal President by the 8th Federal Assembly. The incumbent Karl Carstens had not made himself available for re-election for reasons of age.

Richard von Weizsäcker ran for the second time after losing to Walter Scheel in the election on May 15, 1974 . This time, as a candidate for the CDU / CSU, he also received approval from the ranks of the 426 SPD and 47 FDP delegates, as had previously only happened to Theodor Heuss when he was re-elected in 1954 . Like this, and with a similarly large majority of 832 votes, von Weizsäcker was elected in the first ballot. The writer Luise Rinser , who was nominated as the only opposing candidate by the Greens who first entered the Bundestag in 1983 (39 seats), received 68 votes. 117 delegates abstained.

Bonn, May 23, 1984 - total number of votes 1040 - absolute majority 521

Ballot	candidate	Number of votes	proportion of	Political party
1st ballot	Richard von Weizsäcker	832	80.0%	CDU
	Luise Rinser	68	6.5%	proposed by the Greens
	Abstentions	117	11.3%
	No voting	23	2.2%
Richard von Weizsäcker was thus elected Federal President.

Web links

• Bundestag: The federal assemblies since 1949