If the popularity of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is already beginning to fade, that of the Head of State Frank-Walter Steinmeier is at its zenith: he has just been re-elected this Sunday to this post embodying the moral conscience of the country. In this largely ceremonial function, the former head of diplomacy has earned a reputation as an ardent defender of national democratic values undermined by the far right and the pandemic in recent years.
The 66-year-old Social Democrat with a white mane and dimpled smile had the support of his ruling coalition, an ally of the Greens and the Liberals, as well as much of the Conservatives. He was confirmed once morest three other candidates nominated by the radical left Die Linke, the far right, and a small party of Bavarian origin.
The president was elected at the beginning of the followingnoon by secret ballot and without prior debate by the federal assembly made up of deputies from the Bundestag and an equivalent number of delegates appointed by the regions and the parties, ie 1,472 voters.
A mandate marked by attacks on democracy
Most of the latter are local political representatives, but public figures are also designated to vote, such as this year a star of Bayern Munich Leon Goretza, at the initiative of the SPD. Due to the health crisis, they did not meet in the Reichstag as tradition dictates, but in a large modern building opposite the chancellery.
A career diplomat judged by some to be too pale for the job, Frank-Walter Steinmeier has grown in stature over his last five years. His mandate was marked by repeated attacks on democracy, following the entry of the far right into the Bundestag in 2017, through murderous racist attacks or the emergence of a partly violent conspiracy movement opposed to restrictions to fight the pandemic.
This pleasant man from a working-class background has made himself a champion of dialogue – he regularly organizes meetings with fellow citizens – and of maintaining social cohesion. “We don’t all have to be of one mind in a democracy. But we are a country and we still want to live together following the pandemic (…)”, he said once more at the end of 2021.
A kidney donation
A former right-hand man of Chancellor Gerhard Schröder, he served twice under Merkel governments as foreign minister in 2005 and 2013, despite his humiliating defeat in the 2009 legislative elections.
As head of state, he also put all his weight in the balance to push his more than reluctant party to forge a new coalition with Angela Merkel in 2018, following the failure of negotiations between conservatives, Greens and Liberals. Married to a judge he met during his law studies, he won the sympathy of public opinion by temporarily withdrawing from his political functions in 2010 to donate a kidney to his wife, who was then seriously ill.
