Election of the German Federal President in 1999
Election of the German Federal President in 1999 - second ballot | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Candidates | Votes in% | |||
Johannes Rau | 51.6 | |||
Dagmar Schipanski | 42.8 | |||
Uta Ranke-Heinemann | 4.6 | |||
On May 23, 1999, the 11th Federal Assembly elected Johannes Rau , who had been defeated by Roman Herzog five years earlier , as the eighth German Federal President. SPD party leader Oskar Lafontaine had given the promise Rau to force his election to the presidency when he as Prime Minister of North Rhine-Westphalia resign . Despite Lafontaine's resignation in March 1999, Rau remained a candidate for the SPD. He could count on his election, as the SPD and the Greens were only nine votes short of a majority in the Federal Assembly and he also enjoyed sympathy in the FDP.
The CDU / CSU had nominated the Ilmenau professor Dagmar Schipanski , who then became Minister of Science in Thuringia , in view of the supposedly impossible election .
The PDS had nominated Uta Ranke-Heinemann , a daughter of the former Federal President Gustav Heinemann and aunt of Johannes Rau's wife Christina .
Berlin, May 23, 1999 - total number of votes 1338 - absolute majority 670 | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Ballot | candidate | Number of votes | proportion of | Political party |
1st ballot | Johannes Rau | 657 | 49.1% | SPD |
Dagmar Schipanski | 588 | 43.9% | proposed by the CDU | |
Uta Ranke-Heinemann | 69 | 5.2% | proposed by the PDS | |
2nd ballot | Johannes Rau | 690 | 51.6% | SPD |
Dagmar Schipanski | 572 | 42.8% | proposed by the CDU | |
Uta Ranke-Heinemann | 62 | 4.6% | proposed by the PDS | |
With this, Johannes Rau was elected Federal President. |
See also
- List of members of the 11th Federal Assembly
- http://www.bundestag.de/parlament/lösungen/bundesammlung/bundesversammlungen_seit_1949
Individual evidence
- ↑ Rau: Hope for a dream job. spiegel.de, May 22, 1999, accessed on September 9, 2015 .
- ↑ Federal President Election : Liberal Legends in the Federal Assembly. faz.net, June 30, 2010, accessed September 9, 2015 .