Steinmeier succession: Stegner accuses conservatives of tactics as CSU presses Merz
Social Democrat Ralf Stegner says the CDU and CSU are handling Ilse Aigner purely tactically. CSU leaders want the chancellor to decide quickly after their party convention.
Archive image · Photo: Michael Lucan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
Social Democratic Party (SPD) lawmaker Ralf Stegner has sharply criticized the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and its Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Union (CSU), in the dispute over who will succeed German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The leaderships of both parties are “obviously guided exclusively by tactical considerations,” he told the Rheinische Post newspaper, German news agency dts reported on Sunday. That is “neither appropriate to the office” nor particularly respectful toward Bavarian state parliament President Ilse Aigner (CSU), he said. Stegner sees it as a sign of a leadership crisis among the conservatives but called Aigner a respectable candidate to become the first female head of state in Germany's postwar history.
Following the CSU convention in Munich, pressure from the party on Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) is growing. Klaus Holetschek, head of the CSU group in the Bavarian state parliament, told Stern magazine that Merz had seen “how great the support for Ilse Aigner is” and that the “window” for a decision had come. Former Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich (CSU) expects things to be “heading in the direction of Ilse Aigner” and interprets the chancellor's silence as “a question of tactics.”
The Federal Convention, the body that elects the German president, is due to choose the new head of state on Jan. 30, 2027; the CDU, CSU and SPD have a majority there, according to dts. The CDU has not yet put forward a candidate of its own.