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Frank-Walter Steinmeier with his wife Elke Büdenbender in the Federal Assembly
Photo: Omer Messinger/Getty Images
The old Federal President is also the new one: Frank-Walter Steinmeier was confirmed in office in Berlin with a large majority by the Federal Assembly.
With 1045 out of a total of 1425 valid votes cast, the 66-year-old won the absolute majority in the first ballot.
He accepted the choice.
Against Steinmeier are candidates for the left of the physician Gerhard Trabert (65), for the AfD the CDU member Max Otte (57) and for the free voters the physicist Stefanie Gebauer (41).
Trabert received 96 votes, Gebauer 58 votes and Otte received 140 votes.
Twelve votes cast were invalid, 86 delegates abstained.
The re-election of the 66-year-old Steinmeier was considered certain: Steinmeier needed at least 737 votes to win in the first ballot.
In addition to the traffic light parties SPD, Greens and FDP, he was also supported by the CDU/CSU opposition.
These parties sent 1223 of the total of 1472 delegates.
Steinmeier had already declared his candidacy again in May 2021 and thus actively brought himself into play.
Initially, the Greens thought about their own candidate, and the Union originally wanted to put up an opposing candidate.
The Federal Assembly is the largest parliamentary body in Germany - and is only used for the five-year election of the head of state.
It is made up of equal numbers of members of the German Bundestag and delegates from the 16 state parliaments.
Since the current Bundestag has a total of 736 members, the Federal Assembly consisted of 1472 delegates - more than ever before.
At the beginning of the election, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD) called for more cohesion in society in a welcoming speech.
She called on the members of the delegates present to listen to the citizens even more.
A respectful tone when dealing with those who think differently is now particularly important.
"The majority isn't automatically right, but neither is the minority," Bas said.
Everyone would have to move and approach each other: "No one has the only right solution."
Due to the corona pandemic, the Federal Assembly did not meet in the plenary hall of the Reichstag building for the first time, but in the neighboring Paul-Löbe-Haus.
The House of Representatives was specially prepared for the election, with chairs spaced apart on several floors.
3G plus applied on site: all delegates had to prove a negative corona test, and a test center was set up on the Reichstag meadow.
To be on the safe side, substitute delegates were also on site.
A total of 73 of them moved up at short notice to replace other electors who were absent due to illness.
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