Ilse Aigner tipped by party allies as next German president

Chancellor Friedrich Merz's Christian Democrats (the CDU) and their Bavarian sister party, the CSU , want to nominate a joint candidate to be the next president of Germany when the special "Bundesversammlung" committee that elects one votes at the end of January.

It's long been clear that the CSU favor the current speaker of Bavaria 's parliament, Ilse Aigner, for the role.

But on Friday, multiple German news outlets like Spiegel , the Süddeutsche Zeitung and the DPA news agency cited sources in the CDU as saying that party's leadership had also decided on putting Aigner forward.

DPA reported that Merz would officially recommend Aigner as a candidate at a meeting of the CDU's leadership that will convene in Berlin on Sunday and Monday.

On the record, however, party officials would neither confirm nor deny the reports, pointing only to the upcoming meetings on Monday.

Could Ilse Aigner become Germany's first female head of state?

If chosen, Aigner would be the 13th person and the first woman to take up the role as post-war Germany's head of state, which is a more ceremonial one with primarily symbolic power, while the bulk of the political and legislative power resides with the chancellor.

本文の著作権はDeutsche Welleにあります。