Election of the German Federal President 2017

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Election of the German Federal President 2017
Candidates Votes in%
Frank-Walter Steinmeier
  
 74.3
Christoph Butterwegge
  
 10.2
Albrecht Glaser
  
 3.6
Alexander Hold
  
 2.0
Engelbert Sonneborn
  
 0.8
Abstentions
  
 8.2
Frank-Walter Steinmeier (2014)

The election of the German Federal President by the 16th Federal Assembly took place on February 12, 2017 in the Reichstag building in Berlin. It was the 16th election of a German Federal President .

The governing parties SPD , CDU and CSU had agreed on Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) as a joint candidate, who was then replaced by Sigmar Gabriel from his position as Federal Foreign Minister on January 27, 2017 . He was also supported by the FDP , Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen and the SSW . Other candidates were nominated by the Left , the AfD , the Free Voters and the Pirate Party in cooperation with The Party .

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected with around 74% of the votes cast. His term of office began on March 19, 2017.

background

Joachim Gauck had been Federal President since March 18, 2012. When he was elected , he was the joint candidate of the Union parties , the SPD , the FDP and Alliance 90 / The Greens . In 2010 he was a candidate for the SPD and the Greens.

Gauck announced on June 6, 2016 that he was not available for a second term. He is fine, but he is “aware that the life span between the 77th and 82nd year of life is different from the one in which I am now. For another period of five years I don't want to assume an energy and vitality that I can't guarantee. ”Since September 2015, Gauck had been older than any incumbent Federal President.

Candidates

The following candidates were nominated. The party or list association to which the candidate belongs is given and the parties and associations that supported the candidate in italics in brackets:

Frank-Walter Steinmeier

The SPD politician Frank-Walter Steinmeier was proposed as Federal President by the SPD chairman Sigmar Gabriel on October 23, 2016 . After the CDU and CSU failed in their search for their own candidate, Chancellor and CDU Chairman Angela Merkel and the Bavarian Prime Minister and CSU Chairman Horst Seehofer joined the nomination on November 14th . The FDP announced on January 23, 2017 that it would support Steinmeier. The delegate of the Südschleswigschen Voters' Association also promised Steinmeier his vote in November 2016.

At the time of his nomination, Steinmeier was Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Merkel III cabinet . Due to the large majority of the parties supporting him in the Federal Assembly, his election was considered secure from the start. Steinmeier resigned as Foreign Minister on January 27, 2017, and was succeeded by the previous Minister of Economic Affairs, Sigmar Gabriel , who, in turn, had recently ceded party chairmanship and candidate for chancellor to Martin Schulz .

As a member of the Bundestag, Steinmeier was also a member of the Federal Assembly.

Christoph Butterwegge

After Die Linke rejected Frank-Walter Steinmeier because of his role in the development of Agenda 2010 , the party nominated the poverty researcher Christoph Butterwegge as its candidate on November 22, 2016 . Butterwegge was active from the 1960s to 1974 and again from the 1980s in the SPD and the Jusos , before he left the party in 2005 in protest against their social policy.

Butterwegge was elected a member of the Federal Assembly by the Saxon state parliament on the suggestion of the Saxon Left .

Albrecht Glaser

The AfD presented Albrecht Glaser as its candidate at a federal party conference on April 29, 2016 .

Glaser was a member of the CDU and as such was the city treasurer of Frankfurt am Main . Glaser is deputy federal chairman of the AfD and a state spokesman for the AfD Hessen.

On December 13, 2016, Glaser was elected a member of the Federal Assembly by the Saxon state parliament at the suggestion of AfD Saxony .

Alexander Hold

The judge Alexander Hold was nominated on July 12, 2016 by the free voters who are represented in the Bavarian state parliament . Also in the Brandenburg state parliament sitting BVB / FW support Hold.

Alexander Hold gained notoriety through the TV court show Judge Alexander Hold . He is the FW parliamentary group chairman in the city council of his hometown Kempten (Allgäu) and sits in the district assembly of Swabia . Hold was elected a member of the Federal Assembly by the Bavarian State Parliament on November 22, 2016.

Engelbert Sonneborn

The satirist and member of the European Parliament Martin Sonneborn (Die PARTTEI), who was sent to the Federal Assembly by the pirate faction in the state parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia, nominated his father Engelbert Sonneborn , who was not a party himself . On February 9, 2017, he was presented as a candidate for the Pirate Party Germany and the Party for Labor, Rule of Law, Animal Welfare, Elite Promotion and grassroots initiative (Die PARTEI). Sonneborn is the only candidate not to be a member of the Federal Assembly and at 79 - after Alfred Weber , who was nominated for the election of the German Federal President in 1954 by the KPD without his knowledge at the age of 85 - the second oldest candidate at all.

Federal Assembly

composition

Distribution of seats in the 16th Federal Assembly
           
A total of 1260 seats

The 16th Federal Assembly had 1260 members. In addition to the members of the Bundestag, the state parliaments appointed a further 630 people. The Federal Assembly was chaired by the President of the Bundestag, Norbert Lammert (CDU) , in accordance with Section 8 of the Federal Presidency Act .

Political party
Total members		 Members of the
Federation		 Member
countries		 proportion of
CDU / CSU 539 309 230 42.8%
SPD 384 193 191 30.5%
Green 147 63 84 11.7%
The left 95 64 31 7.5%
FDP 36 - 36 2.9%
AfD 35 - 35 2.8%
Pirates 11 - 11 0.9%
Free voters 10 - 10 0.8%
SSW 1 - 1 0.1%
BVB / FW 1 - 1 0.1%
Non-party 1 1 - 0.1%
total 1260 630 630 100%

According to Article 54, Paragraph 6 of the Basic Law, whoever “receives the votes of the majority of the members of the Federal Assembly” is elected in the first or second ballot. This corresponds to at least 631 votes. With that

the absolute majority required in the first two ballots. In the third ballot, the candidate with the most votes is elected.

procedure

Candidate search

Various potential candidates for the office of Federal President were reported in the media:

CDU

CSU

SPD

  • Frank-Walter Steinmeier . On April 30, 2016, according to Spiegel information, it was said that Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) would not support Frank-Walter Steinmeier's candidacy. In the run-up to the 2017 federal election , she could not convince her party to stand behind an SPD candidate. According to a survey by the Emnid Institute published on June 10, 2016, a majority of those questioned favored Frank-Walter Steinmeier out of seven candidates. Supporters of the Union, SPD and AfD supported him with more than 50 percent each (multiple answers were possible). When in October 2016 a top meeting of the Berlin coalition parties CDU, CSU and SPD was postponed until November to agree on a common candidate without a result, SPD leader Sigmar Gabriel and parliamentary group leader Thomas Oppermann also declared that they considered Steinmeier a suitable candidate. The Left opposed him as a candidate because of Steinmeier's past as the “Architect of Agenda 2010 ”, nominated on November 14, 2016 with the approval of the CDU / CSU and, from January 23, 2017, also supported by the FDP .
  • Jutta Allmendinger

The left

Green

After Steinmeier was nominated, it became known that Chancellor Merkel wanted to nominate Marianne Birthler for the election. Birthler was initially ready to run for office; on November 12, 2016, she revised this.

AfD

Free voters

  • Alexander Hold , Kempten judge and television actor, nominated on July 20, 2016.

Pirate Party and The PARTY

The pirate party initially sought talks with the SPD, the Greens and the left for a joint candidate. When these talks were unsuccessful , a candidate to protest against Steinmeier was sought together with the satirist and MEP Martin Sonneborn ( Die Party ), who had been elected to the Federal Assembly on the proposal of the Pirate Party . The Hamburg red light giant Kalle Schwensen , which was requested by the party, canceled . Murat Kurnaz was also in discussion, but at the time of the election he had not yet reached the required age limit of forty years and was also not a German citizen. The search for a namesake of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, proposed by The Party , was also unsuccessful. Finally, Martin Sonneborn's father, Engelbert Sonneborn , was nominated as a symbol of nepotism but also - in contrast to Steinmeier - for a clean slate .

Non-party

  • Navid Kermani , the orientalist, publicist and writer gained political fame through his speech on the 65th anniversary of the Basic Law in 2014; the following year he received the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade. He was discussed as a possible candidate from the SPD, the Greens and the Left. His nomination would have been seen as a sign of a future red-red-green coalition. It was discussed whether Kermani's Muslim religion would be an advantage or a disadvantage for a candidacy.
  • Andreas Voßkuhle , President of the Federal Constitutional Court , rejected a candidacy in 2012. His name was mentioned again for the 2017 election; For private and professional reasons, he turned down a candidacy again.

Election result

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected in the first ballot with 931 votes (the parties supporting him had a total of 1107 members in the Federal Assembly). Christoph Butterwegge received 128 votes, Albrecht Glaser 42 votes, Alexander Hold 25 votes and Engelbert Sonneborn 10 votes. After the announcement of the election results in front of the plenary session of the Federal Assembly, Steinmeier declared that the election would be accepted. His term of office began on March 19, 2017. The swearing-in took place on March 22, 2017 in a joint meeting of the Bundestag and Bundesrat .

candidate be right proportion of supporter
Frank-Walter Steinmeier 931 74.3% SPD , CDU / CSU , Alliance 90 / The Greens , FDP and SSW
Christoph Butterwegge 128 10.2% The left
Albrecht Glaser 42 3.4% AfD
Alexander Hold 25th 2.0% Free voters , BVB / FW
Engelbert Sonneborn 10 0.8% Pirate party
Abstentions 103 8.2%
Invalid votes 14th 1.1%
Votes cast 1253 100%

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Order on the place and time of the 16th Federal Assembly of December 17, 2015 ( Federal Law Gazette I p. 2273 ), accessed on February 22, 2016.
  2. ^ Elector Harms. SSW, accessed February 12, 2017 .
  3. ↑ a b Gauck's “term of office ends on March 18, midnight.” Bundespraesident.de .
  4. ^ Statement by Federal President Gauck on his term in office (June 6, 2016) bundespraesident.de pdf
  5. ↑ Gabriel suggests Steinmeier for the office of Federal President. In: Sueddeutsche Zeitung , October 23, 2016, accessed on October 24, 2016.
  6. ↑ Frank-Walter Steinmeier: "The right candidate". In: Zeit Online , November 16, 2016.
  7. ↑ FDP supports Steinmeier as Federal President. In: Focus. January 23, 2016. Retrieved January 23, 2016 .
  8. ↑ Free Democrats support Steinmeier. In: liberale.de , January 23, 2017, accessed on January 24, 2017
  9. ↑ Ralf Stegner, Eka von Kalben, Lars Harms: Red-green-blue list of delegates for the Federal Assembly on the website of the Schleswig-Holstein State Parliament, November 30, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2017
  10. ↑ Federal President: Union supports Steinmeier as Gauck's successor . In: The time . November 14, 2016, ISSN  0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed February 12, 2017]).
  11. ↑ Federal President: These are the candidates. In: tagesschau.de. Retrieved February 12, 2017 .
  12. ↑ Resignation of the Foreign Minister: "I will miss this desk" . ( handelsblatt.com [accessed February 12, 2017]).
  13. ↑ Butterwegge is running for Federal President. In: wdr.de , accessed on November 22, 2016.
  14. ^ Tilo Jung : Christoph Butterwegge, candidate for the Federal Presidency of the Left. In: Jung & Naiv - Politics for the disinterested . February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 11, 2017 .
  15. ^ A b Saxon delegates in the Federal Assembly. Saxon State Parliament, accessed on January 22, 2017.
  16. ↑ Hannelore Crolly: This man wants to become Federal President for the AfD. In: Welt Online. April 29, 2016, accessed May 1, 2016 .
  17. ↑ Free voters nominate TV judge Hold for federal presidency. In: sueddeutsche.de , July 20, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2017
  18. ↑ Brandenburg's Free Voters want TV judges as Federal President. In: maz-online.de , October 25, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2017
  19. ↑ Press release on the election of delegates
  20. ↑ Recording of the press conference for the introduction of our presidential candidate ›Pirate Party Germany. Pirate Party Germany, February 9, 2017, accessed on February 11, 2017 .
  21. ↑ Martin Sonneborn: Federal President Election: My father likes to travel . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . February 6, 2017, ISSN  0174-4909 ( faz.net [accessed February 6, 2017]).
  22. ^ Adrian Arab: The party: Engelbert Sonneborn declares his candidacy as Federal President. In: The world. February 11, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2017 .
  23. ↑ Opening speech
  24. ↑ Federal President Election 2017 - This is how the process is planned. In: merkur.de
  25. ↑ a b CDU MP Bosbach brings Schäuble up for discussion as Federal President. In: Welt Online , June 5, 2016.
  26. ↑ Looking for a successor to Gauck - is Bouffier moving to Bellevue Palace? In: n-tv.de. August 2, 2016, accessed September 24, 2016 .
  27. ^ A b Ralf Neukirch: Coalition wants common candidates for Gauck's successor. In: Spiegel Online. September 24, 2016. Retrieved September 24, 2016 .
  28. ↑ Norbert Lammert does not want to become Federal President. In: welt.de
  29. ↑ Federal President candidate: Union receives next rejection. In: merkur.de
  30. ↑ Seehofer supposedly wants to suggest Jens Weidmann. In: welt.de , November 12, 2016
  31. ↑ a b c d In the Union a woman is hot. In: Welt Online , June 5, 2016.
  32. ^ Gauck successor: Merkel does not want Steinmeier as Federal President. In: Spiegel Online , April 30, 2016, accessed April 30, 2016.
  33. ↑ Survey on Gauck's successor: majority of Germans favor Steinmeier. In: Spiegel Online. Retrieved June 10, 2016 .
  34. ^ Zoff about the Federal President election: SPD threatens CDU with Steinmeier. In: Bild.de , October 22, 2016.
  35. ↑ SPD warns of the “lowest denominator” in Gauck's successor. In: merkur.de
  36. ↑ SPD parliamentary group leader: Steinmeier would be an excellent president. In: tagesspiegel.de
  37. ↑ SPD leader Gabriel makes a move: Steinmeier is to become Federal President. In: Bild.de , October 23, 2016.
  38. ↑ Left boss: Steinmeier cannot be elected as Federal President. In: t-online.de
  39. ↑ Election of the Federal President: Left-wing candidate Butterwegge announces "Agenda of Solidarity". In: Zeit Online , November 21, 2016; accessed on February 12, 2017
  40. ↑ a b http://www.tagesspiegel.de/politik/gauck-nachnach-rot-rot-gruener-praesidentschaftskandidat/13720426.html
  41. ^ Peter Carstens: Merkel wanted Marianne Birthler as Federal President. In: FAZ.net , November 18, 2016, accessed on February 12, 2017
  42. ^ AfD wants to dissolve the Saarland regional association. In: Zeit Online , April 30, 2016, accessed April 30, 2016.
  43. ↑ Stefanie Wagner: TV judge as Federal President candidate: Free voters nominate Alexander Hold. In: br.de. July 20, 2016, archived from the original on October 7, 2016 ; Retrieved July 20, 2016 .
  44. ↑ PIRATES want to break new ground in the election of the Federal President ›Pirate Party Germany. Pirate Party Germany, July 8, 2016, accessed on February 13, 2017 .
  45. ↑ Federal President Election - Martin Sonneborn brings father into play as a candidate. In: spiegel.de
  46. ↑ Stephan-Andreas Casdorff: Navid Kermani would be the first choice for red-red-green. In: Der Tagesspiegel (online), July 6, 2016.
  47. ↑ Heike Schmoll: Red-red-green mind games. The left, left seat is free. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine (online), September 25, 2016.
  48. ↑ Bernd Ulrich: Federal President Navid Kermani? In: Zeit Online , July 29, 2016.
  49. ↑ Paul Ingendaay: Kermani as Federal President? Muslim and modern patriot. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine (online), September 30, 2016.
  50. ↑ Candidate Carousel - Who could follow Gauck? In: tagesschau.de , June 7, 2016, accessed June 7, 2016.
  51. ↑ Federal President Election 2017 - The results in detail. In: spiegel.de. February 12, 2017. Retrieved February 12, 2017 .
  52. ↑ http://dipbt.bundestag.de/doc/btp/18/18223.pdf