Could Germany get its first female president? Technician-turned-politician Aigner emerges as a leading contender

[Financial News] Germany could get its first-ever female president. Ilse Aigner, an unmarried politician with a technical background who did not attend university, has emerged as a leading contender.
According to German public broadcaster ARD on the 8th (local time), German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said at a dinner for the leadership of the ruling Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin, “I will nominate Ilse Aigner, president of the Bavarian Landtag, as a candidate for the next federal president.”
Aigner belongs to the Christian Social Union (CSU), the CDU’s sister party and a fellow governing party. The two parties had previously agreed to nominate her. CSU leader and Bavarian Minister-President Markus Söder has been touting Aigner as a successor to German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier since April.
Social Democratic Party (SPD) co-leader Lars Klingbeil, a coalition partner, said, “If the CDU and CSU nominate Aigner, we will welcome and support her. Aigner has the ability to unite the country that Germany needs right now.” SPD member and Brandenburg Minister-President Dietmar Woidke also called her “the perfect candidate,” and some politicians in the opposition Green Party were reportedly positive about her.
Aigner received vocational training as a radio and television technician before working as a helicopter electrical systems technician. She entered the Bavarian Landtag in 1994 and was elected to the Bundestag in 1998. She later served as federal agriculture minister in Angela Merkel’s cabinet from 2008 to 2013, and has reportedly been president of the Bavarian Landtag since 2018. 
The German daily Die Welt said of Aigner, given her background, that she “has shown an ability to reconcile differences between parties while leading the Bavarian Landtag.” Her easy rapport with citizens and willingness to listen to others were also cited as reasons she has earned trust beyond party lines.
The next president is scheduled to be elected at the Federal Convention on January 30 next year. If Aigner is elected, she will become the first female president in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, including the period when it was West Germany, and the first president from the CSU. The German president is a symbolic head of state with almost no real power, but represents the country abroad to apologize for its past and, at home, plays a role in bringing the people and society together. 


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