Aigner as head of state? Kretschmer and Bovenschulte show sympathy
Saxony's CDU premier and Bremen's SPD mayor back Söder's favourite Ilse Aigner. Greens and SPD women want a woman as head of state; the CDU leadership will discuss the issue on 9 November.
Archive image · Photo: Michael Lucan / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0 de (cropped and resized)
In the debate over who should succeed Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, CSU politician Ilse Aigner is gaining support across party lines. Saxony's state premier Michael Kretschmer (CDU) called her "a truly outstanding personality" on ARD's "Bericht aus Berlin" and said the next head of state should be a woman. It had to be "the best personality for this country", not necessarily someone from the CDU, he said.
Bremen's mayor Andreas Bovenschulte (SPD) said Aigner "has the necessary qualifications" but that the decision did not lie with the SPD: "Now it is also the CDU's move." Greens co-leader Franziska Brantner and SPD women's policy spokeswoman Jasmina Hostert told the Süddeutsche Zeitung that a woman should take the country's highest office.
CSU leader Markus Söder argues that his party has provided neither a chancellor nor a federal president in 75 years: "I haven't heard any other names yet." Conservative parliamentary deputy leader Mathias Middelberg (CDU), however, said: "I don't think much of the discussion about the gender of the candidate." The CDU presidium plans to discuss the matter on 9 November, and the Federal Convention meets at the end of January.