Future Federal President | Formally historical: nomination of Ilse Aigner

Popular and inconspicuous: Ilse Aigner at the CSU party conference in October Photo: dpa/Sven Hoppe A mature achievement: more than 77 years after its founding, the Federal Republic has its first female federal president. The CSU candidate Ilse Aigner, who was finally officially presented by the Chancellor on Monday, is supported not only by the Union parties, but also by the Social Democrats and the opposition Greens. Your election on January 30th can therefore be considered as set.

In fact, Aigner, who was Federal Minister of Agriculture for five years and has been President of the Bavarian state parliament since 2018, is acting in a way that qualifies her for the future office. Namely moderate, non-partisan and supportive of the state. In this way, she also embodies an alternative to the politician Markus Söder. The Bavarian head of government praised her at an early stage as the ideal representative of the entire Federal Republic of Germany - perhaps also because he was thus keeping a future competitor in his kingdom at bay for the time being.

Of course, the position in Berlin only includes a few powers, apart from signing legal texts. Like incumbent Steinmeier, Aigner will be involved in state visits, speeches at all kinds of celebrations and silent participation in award ceremonies and funeral ceremonies as well as presenting crosses of merit. She is also not expected to take public positions against the dismantling of the welfare state or arms exports to Israel or Saudi Arabia.

Aigner's career is particularly remarkable by Bavarian standards. The 61-year-old is not an academic, but a trained radio and television technician. Until she entered the Munich state parliament in 1994, she was a systems electrician for the helicopter manufacturer Eurocopter. An even bigger peculiarity in the Free State: The politician is still unmarried and has no children. In 1993, her party found that such “unexplained family relationships” stood in the way of a candidacy for mayor in her home community. But even the CSU was flexible in this regard: the former party leader Edmund Stoiber personally supported Aigner's entry into federal politics. He was further ahead than today's Chancellor, who maneuvered around until the end.

In terms of charm, charisma, non-partisanship and biography, there have already been many convincing candidates for the office. The fact that they did not take office for reasons of proportional representation or because they were nominated by an opposition party says a lot about the inflexibility of German politics. At this point we would like to remember Gesine Schwan, Hildegard Hamm-Brücher and Beate Klarsfeld.

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