German presidential election, 2017

German presidential election, 2017

12 February 2017

Nominee Frank-Walter Steinmeier Christoph Butterwegge Albrecht Glaser Party SPD Independent AfD Electoral vote 931 128 42 Percentage 73.89% 10.16% 3.33% Nominators SPD, CDU/CSU, Greens, FDP, SSW Die Linke AfD   Nominee Alexander Hold Engelbert Sonneborn Party FW Independent Electoral vote 25 10 Percentage 1.98% 0.79% Nominators BWB/FW Pirate Party, PARTEI

President before election Joachim Gauck Independent Elected President Frank-Walter Steinmeier SPD

The 2017 German presidential election (officially the 16th Federal Convention) was held on 12 February 2017. The election selected Frank-Walter Steinmeier as President of Germany; incumbent President Joachim Gauck announced on 6 June 2016 that he would not stand for re-election, citing his advancing age.

The President was elected by the Federal Convention, an electoral body that consists of all members of the current Bundestag and an equal number of electors, who are elected by the sixteen state parliaments. The President-elect will enter office on 19 March 2017 and will take the oath of office the same day in a joint session of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat.

Steinmeier was chosen as the single candidate of the ruling coalition in November and, with the Christian Democratic Union choosing not to field a candidate against him, his election was seen as guaranteed.

Composition of the Federal Convention

The Bundesversammlung was composed as follows:

Party	Bundestag members	State electors	Total electors	Percentage
CDU/CSU	309	230	539	42.8%
Social Democratic Party	193	191	384	30.5%
Alliance '90/The Greens	63	84	147	11.6%
The Left	64	31	95	7.5%
Free Democratic Party	0	36	36	2.9%
Alternative for Germany	0	35	35	2.8%
Pirate Party	0	11	11	0.9%
Free Voters	0	10	10	0.8%
South Schleswig Voters' Association	0	1	1	0.1%
Brandenburg United Civic Movements/Free Voters	0	1	1	0.1%
Total	630	630	1260	100%

In the Federal Convention, a candidate needs a majority (at least 631 votes) to become President. If no candidate gets a majority of votes in the first two ballots, a plurality is sufficient on the third ballot.

Candidates

Every member of the Federal Convention (members of the Bundestag and state electors, once they are elected by their respective state parliament) can propose candidates for the presidency. It is required that the President is a German citizen and at least 40 years old. Every candidate has to declare his consent to running. Candidates can be proposed before the Federal Convention and (theoretically) during the Convention before every ballot. If the President-elect is a member of a legislature or a government on federal or state level, he has to resign from that office before the start of his term. A sitting President is not allowed to run for a third consecutive term.

Chancellor Angela Merkel originally wanted to nominate Green politician Marianne Birthler, who succeeded Gauck as the Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records from 2001 to 2011, and as the CDU/CSU and the Greens control a majority in the Federal Convention, Birthler's election would have been secured. However, Birthler after some time decided not to run.

On 14 November 2016 the governing parties CDU/CSU and the Social Democratic Party named the Minister of Foreign Affairs and former Vice Chancellor of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier as their consensus candidate. The Free Democratic Party endorsed Steinmeier. The other parties were considered likely to either endorse Steinmeier or name candidates of their own to express discontent with the consensus candidate. In any case Steinmeier was the clear favorite to win the election, because the parties endorsing his candidacy held 960 votes in the Federal Convention.

Alternative for Germany proposed the former treasurer of Frankfurt Albrecht Glaser, and the Free Voters named the judge and TV celebrity Alexander Hold. Both were widely considered to have no real chance of winning the presidency, because their respective parties have few electors in the Federal Convention and it was unlikely that they would receive endorsements from other parties. On 20 November 2016 the The Left nominated the political scientist Christoph Butterwegge. Martin Sonneborn, member of the satirical party Die PARTEI and state elector (North Rhine-Westphalia) for the Pirate Party proposed his father, the retired career consultant Engelbert Sonneborn.

Party	Candidate	Previous service / Profession
Social Democratic Party, endorsed by CDU/CSU, Alliance '90/The Greens, Free Democratic Party	Frank-Walter Steinmeier	Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs (2005–2009 and 2013–2017) and Vice Chancellor of Germany (2007–2009)
Die Linke (The Left)	Christoph Butterwegge	Professor of Political Science at the University of Cologne (since 1998)
Alternative für Deutschland (Alternative for Germany)	Albrecht Glaser	Treasurer of Frankfurt (Hesse) (1997–2001)
Free Voters, endorsed by Brandenburg United Civic Movements/Free Voters	Alexander Hold	Judge and TV celebrity
Independent, endorsed by one elector of the Pirate Party	Engelbert Sonneborn	Career consultant
Pirate Party, South Schleswig Voters' Association	no candidate named or endorsed

Except for Sonneborn, all candidates were electors in the Federal Convention themselves. Steinmeier was a member of the current Bundestag, Butterwegge and Glaser were elected as state electors for Saxony and Hold as state elector for Bavaria.

Results

The 16th Federal Convention elected Frank-Walter Steinmeier on the first ballot. He will enter office on 19 March 2017.

Candidate	Party	Supporting party	Votes	Percentage (%)
Frank-Walter Steinmeier	Social Democratic Party	SPD, CDU/CSU, Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, FDP and SSW	931	73.89
Christoph Butterwegge	Independent	Die Linke (The Left)	128	10.16
Albrecht Glaser	Alternative for Germany	AfD	42	3.33
Alexander Hold	Free Voters	Free Voters and BVB/FW	25	1.98
Engelbert Sonneborn	Independent	Pirate Party Germany and Die Partei	10	0.79
Abstentions			103	8.17
Invalid votes			14	0.11
Total			1,253	99.44
Eligible voters			1,260	100
Source: Wahlrecht.de