Election of the German Federal President in 2009

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Election of the German Federal President in 2009
Candidates Votes in%
Horst Koehler
  
 50.1
Gesine Swan
  
 41.1
Peter Sodann
  
 7.4
Frank Rennicke
  
 0.3
Abstentions
  
 0.8

In the election of the German Federal President in 2009 by the 13th Federal Assembly , Horst Köhler was re-elected as the ninth Federal President in office.

By order of the President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert on May 8, 2008, the Federal Assembly met on May 23, 2009 in the Reichstag building in Berlin . The Federal Assembly consisted of the 612 members of the German Bundestag and 612 members elected by the state parliaments .

The incumbent Federal President Horst Köhler had run again for the office. The SPD had nominated its candidate from 2004, the political scientist Gesine Schwan , again. The candidate of the party Die Linke was the actor Peter Sodann ; the common candidate of the NPD and the DVU was the singer-songwriter Frank Rennicke .

The parties that had voted in favor of Köhler's re-election ( CDU , CSU , FDP and the voter group of Free Voters from Bavaria ) had an absolute majority of the members of the 13th Federal Assembly , which is required in the first round of the Federal President's election.

Polls in the population

According to a Forsa survey in November 2008, 67% of German citizens would vote Horst Köhler, 12% Gesine Schwan and 8% Peter Sodann as Federal President.

According to a research group election survey on May 8, 2009, 72% of German citizens would vote Horst Koehler, 13% Gesine Schwan and 3% Peter Sodann.

A survey by the Institute for Demoskopie Allensbach on May 19, 2009 showed that 60% of German citizens would vote for Koehler, 13% for Schwan and 4% for Sodann, 23% gave no information.

Composition of the 13th Federal Assembly

Distribution of seats in the 13th Federal Assembly
          
A total of 1224 seats
Political party Seats proportion of
CDU / CSU 497 40.6%
SPD 418 34.2%
FDP 107 8.7%
Green 95 7.8%
The left 90 1 7.4%
FW Free Voters 10 0.8%
NPD 3 0.2%
DVU 1 0.1%
SSW 1 0.1%
Non-attached MdB 2 2 0.2%
1224
1The party Die Linke had 90 members with voting rights , but only 89 members were present due to an illness of the member Wolfgang Gehrcke .
2These non-attached MPs are: Gert Winkelmeier (Die Linke) and Henry Nitzsche (formerly CDU, now Arbeit-Familie-Vaterland).

See also: List of members of the 13th Federal Assembly

  • Candidates

  • Horst Koehler (CDU / CSU)

  • Gesine Schwan (SPD)

  • Peter Sodann (The Left)

  • Frank Rennicke (NPD / DVU)

Result

Berlin, May 23, 2009 - total number of votes 1223 - absolute majority 613 (eligible to vote: 1224 *)

Ballot candidate Number of votes proportion of Political party
First ballot Horst Koehler 613 50.1% CDU / CSU / FDP / Free Voters
Gesine Swan 503 41.1% SPD / Greens
Peter Sodann 91 7.4% The left
Frank Rennicke 4th 0.3% NPD / DVU
Abstentions 10 0.8%
Invalid votes 2 0.2%
Not present 1 0.1%
With that, Horst Köhler was re-elected as Federal President .

* It was decided by the absolute majority of the members, not that of those actually present or the votes cast.

Glitches during the election

The information that Horst Köhler was confirmed in office was prematurely published by the Bundestag members Julia Klöckner and Ulrich Kelber via the Internet service Twitter . Before Bundestag President Norbert Lammert was able to announce the official result of the vote at 2:29 p.m., Kelber announced the result at 2:15 p.m. and informed Klöckner at 2:18 p.m. that the ballot had been successful. In contrast to Kelber, Klöckner was one of the 60 secretaries personally involved in the counting of the votes, which raised questions as to whether the election secrecy according to Section 9 (3) and (4) of the law on the election of the Federal President was maintained by the Federal Assembly . Another mishap was that the band entered the hall early and the bouquets of flowers were distributed. At 2:24 pm, Volker Beck commented on this on Twitter as a “protocol-related GAU” and announced at 2:29 pm that he would like to address this in the German Bundestag's council of elders. After the meeting of the Council of Elders on May 28, 2009, President of the Bundestag Norbert Lammert regretted the breakdowns that had occurred.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Order on the place and time of the 13th Federal Assembly ( BGBl. 2008 I p. 807 ) (PDF; 55 KB)
  2. ^ Süddeutsche Zeitung : Köhler will run again . May 22, 2008
  3. ↑ Die Linke - press release on October 14, 2008 ( memento of the original from October 16, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / linksfraktion.de
  4. ^ AP summary of the NPD party congress on April 4 and 5, 2009
  5. ↑ Free voters announce support for Köhler , Armin Grein in an interview with Jochen Spengler on April 9, 2009 on deutschlandfunk.de
  6. ↑ Spiegel Online from October 22, 2008
  7. ↑ Politbarometer May 2009
  8. ↑ Survey: majority of citizens in favor of Köhler, FAZ from May 19, 2009
  9. ↑ heise online: Federal President election: result announced by SMS and Twitter , accessed on May 27, 2009
  10. ^ FAZ.net : Twitter affair: The Wine Queen and the Federal Hotte , May 27, 2009
  11. ↑ Kelber's message via Twitter, accessed on May 27, 2009
  12. ^ Message from Klöckner via Twitter, accessed on May 27, 2009
  13. ^ Beck's message via Twitter, accessed on May 27, 2009
  14. ^ Beck's message via Twitter, accessed on May 27, 2009
  15. ↑ http://www.n-tv.de/politik/Lammert-uebernehmen-Schuld-article311895.html

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