On Sunday, 1,472 members of the Federal Assembly elect the Federal President. The process is regulated in Article 54 of the Basic Law – and in another concise law.
For the first time since Horst Köhler in 2009, a Federal President will take up office for a second term on Sunday. There is no doubt that Frank-Walter Steinmeier can stay in Bellevue Palace. The election of the German head of state is regulated in Article 54 of the Basic Law. In addition, the concise law on the election of the Federal President by the Federal Assembly applies. What you need to know about the process:
The Federal Assembly
The Federal Assembly usually meets every five years to elect the Federal President. It is made up of the members of the Bundestag (currently 736) and an equal number of members who are delegated by the 16 state parliaments. The 17th Federal Assembly on February 13th has 1472 members. How many seats a country gets depends on its population. The state parliaments elect the members according to the principles of proportional representation. Members of the state parliament often get a chance, but also local politicians and celebrities such as athletes or musicians.
The applicants
Any German who has the right to vote in the Bundestag and has reached the age of 40 can stand for election. Every member of the Federal Assembly can submit nominations to the President of the German Bundestag. New proposals can be made for the second and third ballots. As a rule, the candidates are nominated by parties. This year, the incumbent Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was proposed for re-election by the SPD, Greens, FDP and CDU/CSU, is running, as well as the doctor Gerhard Trabert, who was nominated by the left, the economist Max Otte, who was sent into the race by the AfD, and the physicist Stefanie Gebauer for the Free Voters.
the location
Under normal circumstances, the Federal Assembly would meet in the plenary hall of the Reichstag building. The number of seats would be doubled there. However, this is not possible under Corona conditions. Therefore, the Federal Assembly deviates from the neighboring Paul-Löbe-Haus. The eight-storey building with around 1000 offices and 21 conference rooms offers more space. The members of the Federal Assembly will be placed there on several levels – many of them will therefore only see the previous and probably new Federal President on the screen and not in person.
The sequence
The session of the Federal Assembly is chaired by Bundestag President Bärbel Bas (SPD). She will give a speech at the opening. The Federal Assembly first gives itself rules of procedure, whereby the rules of procedure of the Bundestag generally apply accordingly. In addition, secretaries are appointed. The President of the Bundestag will then read out the nominations received and finally open the first ballot. Each member of the Federal Assembly is called by name. Elections are made using concealed official ballot papers. When everyone is in, the secretaries count, which will take about an hour. The entire voting process is expected to take around two hours.
The chosen one
An absolute majority is required for the first ballot and any necessary second ballot. The person who receives the votes of the majority of the members of the Federal Assembly is elected – this time at least 737. In the third ballot, a simple majority is then sufficient. For example, the CDU politician Christian Wulff had to go to a third ballot on June 30, 2010. For this reason and because of long interruptions after the first two ballots, the 14th Federal Assembly lasted nine and a half hours. The elected person has two days to declare whether he accepts the election. Normally, however, he does this immediately after the announcement of the election result. Then he gives a speech.
The further steps
The newly elected Federal President later takes the oath in front of the assembled members of the Bundestag and Bundesrat when he takes office. He speaks the same formula as Olaf Scholz (SPD) when he was sworn in as Chancellor. In addition, the Federal President presents a kind of program for his term of office in a speech on this occasion. Since Steinmeier took the oath of office after his first election in 2017, this will not apply to his foreseeable re-election. If one of his competitors were elected, Steinmeier’s term would expire on March 18.
Source: Stern
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