Governing parties nominate Ilse Aigner to succeed Steinmeier

Germany’s governing parties have nominated Ilse Aigner, the 61-year-old speaker of Bavaria’s state legislature, to succeed President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. With backing from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats, the Social Democrats and the Greens, Aigner appears well positioned to win the largely ceremonial presidency when the Federal Convention votes on January 30, 2027. If elected, she would be Germany’s first woman president. Aigner has cast herself as a unifying candidate and called broad support for her nomination a signal against populist and extremist forces; Merz also highlighted her background as an electrical engineer and former technician.