For the first time Federal President ?: Women in Union for Women in Bellevue Palace

Monday, December 21, 2020

First time Federal President?
Women in Union for Women in Bellevue Palace

Whenever you looked at Bellevue Palace in the past 70 years, you could see a man there. It doesn't have to stay that way – women in the Union are now proposing a candidate.

The Union is considering electing a woman to head the state for the first time after the next federal election. Although the question of a Federal President is not pending, said CDU Deputy Chief Julia Klöckner of the Düsseldorf "Rheinische Post". The choice of a woman would be "simply a piece of normality even in the highest office of the state". For the post it depends on a "veritable personality" and that could "of course also be a woman," said Klöckner.

The deputy CDU federal chairman Silvia Breher told the newspaper: "I can certainly imagine a woman as federal president." Prior to this, however, is the question of whether the Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who has been in office since 2017, is available for a second term.

According to calculations by the newspaper based on current survey results for the previous Bundestag and state elections, both black-green and black-red could expect a majority in the next federal assembly in February 2022 – the federal assembly is the body that meets every five years to elect the Federal President. A red-red-green alliance, on the other hand, would not have the required majority. In purely mathematical terms, a proposal by the Union and FDP could also find a majority in the secret election with the votes of the AfD.

So far, only men have been federal presidents. But there were already several candidates, including Gesine Schwan for the SPD (2004 and 2009) and Hildegard Hamm-Brücher for the FDP (1994). The Union has also sent a woman into the race once. In 1999 the Thuringian professor Dagmar Schipanski ran for the Christian Democrats, but was then defeated by Johannes Rau from the SPD.

The previous candidates always went into the race as underdogs, the favorites and later winners were men. Should the Union achieve a strong result in the federal election in 2021, a possible candidate could have better chances of victory than ever before.