Steinmeier's opponents in the presidential election: what Otte, Trabert and Gebauer stand for

Created: 2022-02-11, 12:32 p.m

By: Cindy Boden

The candidates for the election of the Federal President: Gerhard Trabert, Max Otte and Stefanie Gebauer (from left to right) © Boris Roessler/-/Freie Wahler/dpa/FlorianGaertner/photothek.de/Imago

Not only Frank-Walter Steinmeier wants to be elected Federal President by the Federal Assembly in mid-February.

The Left, AfD and Free Voters also nominated candidates.

Berlin - It seems almost certain that Frank-Walter Steinmeier will remain Federal President for another four years.

In a joint letter, the party and faction leaders of the traffic light partners SPD, Greens and FDP as well as the Union leaders proposed the former SPD chancellor candidate for re-election.

Without opposing candidates, the incumbent will not go to the Federal Assembly on February 13: Left, AfD and Free Voters have also nominated candidates.

Presidential election 2022: Steinmeier's opponents Trabert, Otte and Gebauer

The left proposes the Mainz social doctor Gerhard Trabert (non-party).

Party leader Susanne Hennig-Wellsow described the 65-year-old, who is known for his commitment to the homeless, the poor and refugees, on Twitter as a "people of action with a big heart".

"Professor Gerhard Trabert is on the road every day with the doctor's mobile to take care of the homeless, worked as a doctor and sea rescuer in many crisis areas, was honored with the Federal Cross of Merit," wrote left-wing faction leader Dietmar Bartsch.

Trabert sees his candidacy under the slogan "dare more social justice".

"Many politicians are so far removed from the reality of life for recipients of transfer payments that they can no longer understand what it means to have to live on Hartz IV," he told the

.

Candidate Trabert, proposed by the left: He is known to some from the federal elections

According to Trabert, it must be the task of a Federal President to emphasize the issue of inequality in Germany more strongly.

In the corona pandemic in particular, far too little attention is paid to the fact that illness and mortality are very much linked to social status.

Trabert also accused the federal government of not doing justice to Germany's humanitarian responsibility in the face of the plight of refugees in the Mediterranean.

The doctor is the founder and chairman of the Association for Poverty and Health in Germany.

He has repeatedly taken part in civilian operations to rescue migrants at sea in the Mediterranean.

In the 2021 federal election, Trabert already caused a surprise for some: He ran in the constituency of Mainz as a direct candidate for the left - and got 12.4 percent of the first votes from the start.

However, he did not make it into the Bundestag.

Candidate Otte, proposed by the AfD: the nomination caused a stir

Steinmeier's second opponent, Max Otte, caused a lot of excitement even before the election day: the fact that the AfD chose a CDU politician for its nomination heated up tempers.

He has meanwhile announced his resignation as chairman of the Union of Values, an arch-conservative CDU-related association.

The CDU leadership has also initiated proceedings against the 57-year-old to be excluded from the party.

Otte had often been accused of being close to the AfD.

Until January 2021 he was chairman of the board of trustees of the AfD-affiliated Desiderius Erasmus Foundation.

In addition, Otte has already announced that he will withdraw from active party politics after running for the presidency.

“The office of Federal President or the candidacy is above the parties and at the end of a political career.

What should come after that?” said the economist of the dpa.

"So this candidacy also means my departure from the party-political stage."

Presidential election 2022: Otte wants to outdo Steinmeier - he shares the concerns of the candidate Trabert

Otte called the candidacy "one of the most honorable tasks and highest honors in the country that can be brought up to you".

Counter-candidates are traditionally used to draw attention to important issues in the country.

He said he shares the concern of Leftist candidate Trabert, for whom the issue of poverty and impoverishment in the middle class is important.

In addition, he, Otte, has repeatedly taken a stand against restrictions on democracy and fundamental rights in the wake of the corona pandemic.

he turns against the brutalization of political discourse and increasing exclusion, explained the fund manager.

Candidate Gebauer, proposed by the Free Voters: Her obscurity could also have advantages

After some back and forth, ten days before the federal presidential election, the Free Voters also nominated their own candidate.

It is the physicist Stefanie Gebauer from Kremmen in Brandenburg, 41 years old.

Gebauer is "a young power woman in her early 40s from local politics, studied physics, who stands for the political center, taking responsibility and optimism about the future," said Hubert Aiwanger, head of the Free Voters, about her.

The parliamentary groups from Bavaria, Rhineland-Palatinate and Brandenburg also unanimously advocated Gebauer.

Gebauer is largely unknown to the public: She is the chairwoman of the city council in Kremmen and has been a research assistant in the Brandenburg state parliamentary group since 2021.

"Precisely because I don't come from Berlin's political scene, I see that being close to the people and the will to engage in real dialogue are more necessary than ever," she said, according to a statement by the Free Voters.

“Unfortunately, this will has been increasingly lost in recent years.

I want to give people courage and encourage women in particular to take responsibility.”

What the Free Voters also pointed out: Gebauer is not only the only woman in the field of candidates, but also the youngest candidate ever proposed for the office.

Federal Assembly elects Federal President: Steinmeier, Trabert, Otte, Gebauer - who will it be?

The Federal Assembly meets on February 13 to elect the Federal President.

It will have 1472 members - the 736 members of the Bundestag and just as many people who send the 16 state parliaments.

The result of the federal presidential election will be available immediately on election day.

Incidentally, the Basic Law regulates who is allowed to stand: According to Article 54, every German who has the right to vote in the Bundestag and has reached the age of forty can be elected.