German President Steinmeier in this Christmas speech. /
The veteran Social Democratic politician is highly regarded in the country and has great international prestige
The German government parties, the tripartite Social Democrats (SPD), Greens and Liberals (FDP), and the main opposition formation, the Union of Christian Democrats (CDU) and Social Christians (CSU) of Bavaria, will support the re-election of Frank Walter Steinmeier as Federal President of Germany. After the environmentalists expressed their support on Monday for the 66-year-old politician, who has been in the position of German president for almost five years, the conservatives announced this Monday that they will advise their delegates in the Federal Assembly to vote in favor of the reelection of Steinmeier for a new and final term. The veteran German politician had previously received the approval of the liberals and the Social Democratic Party, in which he was active until he assumed the leadership of the state and the obligatory political neutrality.
The president of the CDU, Armin Laschet, commented when announcing the support of the conservatives for the reelection of Steinmeier that currently exist, due to the debate on the measures to be applied against the coronavirus, «social centrifugal forces» that divide the country in many ways . In times like this, “a credible voice” is needed at the head of the state, capable of uniting and bringing together different points of view, “said Laschet. Steinmeier is highly regarded and recognized at the national level and has exceptional powers in foreign policy, stressed the leader of the German Conservatives. CDU and CSU had studied until the last moment the possibility of presenting their own candidate in the vote that will take place on February 13 when the Federal Assembly meets.
Steinmeier has a long political career during which, among other positions, he assumed the Ministry of the Chancellery under the government of the Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder between 1999 and 2005. He was Foreign Minister in the first cabinet of the conservative Angela Merkel between 2005 and 2009 and since 2007 federal vice chancellor. From 2009 to 2012, when the Conservatives sided with the Liberals, Steinmeier led the SPD’s parliamentary opposition in the Bundestag after losing the federal elections. However, he repeated in office as head of German diplomacy in Merkel’s third term between 2013 and 2017. In March of this last year he became the twelfth president of the German Federal Republic after his election by the Federal Assembly.
This body, which is constituted solely to celebrate the election of the German head of state, is made up of 1,472 members who meet in the plenary session of the Bundestag for the occasion. Half of them are the deputies of the German lower house and the other half are delegates sent by the regional parliaments of the 16 federal states, on many occasions public personalities such as athletes, artists or actors with reputations. Social Democrats, Greens and Liberals have 776 votes in the Federal Assembly, 39 more than needed to win Steinmeier’s re-election. The 446 votes from the Union parties will give the veteran politician overwhelming support to continue at the helm of the German state. It is expected that against Steinmeier the extreme rightists of Alternative for Germany (AfD), with 154 delegates, and 71 from the Left party will vote, the latter because it demands the election of a woman as head of state.
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