Ilse Aigner emerges as CDU-CSU choice for Germany’s next president

Ilse Aigner is expected to become the joint presidential candidate of Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister party, the CSU, according to reports cited by Spiegel, Süddeutsche Zeitung and the DPA news agency. DPA reported that Merz would formally recommend Aigner at a meeting of the CDU leadership in Berlin on Sunday and Monday. CDU and CSU officials have so far declined to confirm or deny the reports, referring instead to the scheduled meetings.

Aigner, 61, is speaker of Bavaria’s state parliament and has held senior political positions at both state and federal level. She served as Germany’s agriculture minister for five years under former Chancellor Angela Merkel and previously represented Bavaria in the Bundestag. The CSU has long favoured Aigner for the role.

If she is elected, she would become Germany’s 13th post-war president, the first woman to hold the office and the first politician from the CSU to do so. The presidency carries primarily symbolic and ceremonial authority, while executive and legislative power rests largely with the chancellor. The Social Democrats, junior partners in Merz’s coalition, have already signalled support.

SPD chairman Lars Klingbeil said that if the CDU leadership officially put Aigner forward, his party would welcome and back the nomination. Germany’s president is chosen by the Bundesversammlung, a special electoral body that is due to vote on January 30, 2027. It consists of all 630 members of the Bundestag and an equal number of representatives selected by the federal states.

Those representatives include state and local politicians as well as other public figures. The CDU/CSU and SPD together hold an estimated majority of about 50 seats in the body. Merz is also expected to seek support from the Greens, who have traditionally advocated greater representation for women in senior political offices.

That would leave Aigner with a potentially strong path to victory if the nomination is confirmed. The election will replace Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who took office in March 2017 and is approaching the end of his second five-year term. Aigner’s possible candidacy would give the traditionally largely male presidency a historic change, though her nomination remains formally unannounced in the reports supplied.