Presidential election live: Federal Assembly meets

Created: 02/11/2022Updated: 02/11/2022 06:52

By: Ines Alberti

The 2022 presidential election will take place in the Paul-Löbe-Haus (right) on the Spree in Berlin.

© Ingo Schulz/Imago

In the afternoon, the Federal Assembly elects a Federal President.

You can read the current developments in the federal presidential election here in the ticker.

• The Federal President* is elected today by the Federal Assembly*.

• It is considered certain that the incumbent head of state Frank-Walter Steinmeier* (SPD*) will be re-elected.

• The opposing candidates* in the federal presidential election* are Gerhard Trabert for Die Linke*, Max Otte for the AfD* and Stefanie Gebauer for the Freie Wahler.

+++ Update news ticker +++

Berlin – Today (February 13, 2022) it will be decided who will be Germany's Federal President for the next five years.

This time, the Federal Assembly will vote between three candidates for the election of the Federal President.

However, a re-election of the incumbent head of state Frank-Walter Steinmeier (SPD) is considered likely.

In addition to Steinmeier, his opponents are Gerhard Trabert (non-party, nominated by Die Linke), Max Otte (CDU*, nominated by AfD) and Stefanie Gebauer (free voters).

The SPD, CDU/CSU*, Greens* and FDP* have not put forward their own candidates, but support Steinmeier for a second term.

A total of 1472 people cast their votes, including members of the federal and state parliaments as well as various eligible voters* from different areas of society.

Because of the corona pandemic*, the Federal Assembly does not meet in the plenary hall of the Reichstag building as usual, but in the neighboring Paul-Löbe-Haus.

The delegates are spread over several rooms and floors and should be able to keep a distance of 1.5 meters.

Presidential election: Will Frank-Walter Steinmeier be re-elected?

In the last federal presidential election in 2017, the Federal Assembly made a clear decision in the first ballot: Frank-Walter Steinmeier received 74.3 percent of the votes and thus a clear absolute majority.

At that time, as now, the SPD, Union, Greens and FDP had pledged their support to the former Federal Foreign Minister.

The Left Party, AfD, Free Voters, the Pirate Party and Die PARTEI nominated their own candidates, but they hardly stood a chance.

This is how the Federal Assembly voted in 2017:

Current developments in the Federal Assembly, initial forecasts and projections* as well as the result* of the federal presidential election can be found here in the news ticker.

You can also follow the election of the Federal President on TV and in the live stream*.

(Ines Alberti)