“I am resigning my post as federal president with immediate effect” – on May 31st, for the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany, a president resigned from his office. Federal president Horst Köhler, 67, accounts for his decision to resign with a lack of respect for the president’s office he had perceived.
Upon his return from a trip to Afghanistan, on May 22nd Köhler said that “in emergencies, military intervention is necessary to uphold our interests, like for example free trade routes, for example to prevent regional instabilities which could have a negative impact on our chances in terms of trade, jobs and income”.
Critics said the president was framing Germany’s involvement in the Afghan war in economic terms having to do with self-interest, rather than as a duty in fulfilling a NATO mission in the fight against terrorism. Furthermore, his comments were taken as an indication for him to use the military unconstitutionally and for economic reasons.
Köhler later corrected that with his comment he was referring to the protection of shipping routes along the Gulf of Aden against piracy, for example, and not with any reference to Germany’s role in Afghanistan. However, the president – who has been lacking support by the government before – took the public discussion of his statement as a sign of disrespect for his position, and resigned.

In the case of a withdrawal of a president, the German constitution mandates that the head of the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament that represents Germany’s federal states, will temporarily take over the president’s duties. The convention must convene within 30 days – in this case by June 30. The secret ballot vote is held without prior debate and requires an absolute majority to elect a president. If none of the candidates wins an absolute majority after two rounds of voting, the person with a simple majority in the third round is selected president.

In the wake of Köhler’s withdrawal, Germany is now in search for candidates for the office of the federal president. So far, two candidates have been pronounced: Chancellor Angela Merkel nominated Christian Wulff, 51, the governor of the northern state of Lower Saxony. During his political career as a Christian Democrat, Wulff has been known as an inoffensive politician, who knows his way around the political system thanks to decades of party political and government work.
The Social Democrats nominated their own candidate in opposition to Merkel’s choice: Joachim Gauck, 70, a Protestant pastor from eastern Germany who opposed the communist regime. After the unification, Gauck spent 10 years heading the authority that manages the archives of East Germany’s secret police, the Stasi, thereby making a major contribution to shedding light on the crimes of East Germany.
Whereas due to his personal and political background, Gauck seems to be favoured by the German people, the numeral majority of the centre-right coalition in the Federal Convention makes Wulff the presumable winner of the election.

Even though in practice, the office of the Federal President in Germany is a ceremonial, non-political one, a new president foreshadows political impact: A defeat of Merkel’s candidate would constitute the loss of stability from which the centre-right coalition suffered recently. The media coverage reveals that the election is not just about Gauck or Wulff, but that it is also about Gauck or Merkel.