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German Chancellor Merkel Struggling to Find New President Amid Party Spat

© AFP 2023 / Wolfgang Kumm German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and German President Joachim Gauck attend an event for citizens at Bellevue Palace in Berlin on September 9, 2016.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) and German President Joachim Gauck attend an event for citizens at Bellevue Palace in Berlin on September 9, 2016. - Sputnik International
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Four months after Germany's 11th post-war President, the popular Joachim Gauck announced he would not stand for another term, Merkel is struggling to find consensus over his replacement, exemplifying the splits within her own party and across the political spectrum

Gauck was nominated to the post of President, February 2012, by parties from across the political spectrum: Merkel's CDU, her Bavarian sister party, the CSU and the opposition SPD, as well as the Alliance '90/The Greens.

© REUTERS / Hannibal HanschkeGerman President Joachim Gauck gives a press statement at the presidential residence Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, June 6, 2016
German President Joachim Gauck gives a press statement at the presidential residence Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, June 6, 2016 - Sputnik International
German President Joachim Gauck gives a press statement at the presidential residence Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, June 6, 2016

However, Gauck, aged 76, announced in June that he would not stand again in 2017, saying:

"I do not want to commit myself for a further period of five years when I cannot guarantee that I will have the adequate amount of energy and vitality that is required. How one considers one's own age is a very individual, very personal question. This is the way I have answered it for myself."

Four months on — and with six months to go before the vote — Merkel has still not managed to find cross-party support for a single candidate to replace him and is facing the probability of each party putting forward its own candidate, further muddying the waters of next year's federal election.

No Candidate?

Merkel is facing increasing criticism over her "open doors" policy for refugees and her popularity has plummeted. Relations with her own sister party, the Bavarian CSU have become strained over the migrant issue — Bavaria having borne the brunt of the migrant crisis, originally — and he coalition party, the SPD, has also voiced heavy criticism over her handling of the affair.

© REUTERS / Fabrizio BenschGerman Economy Minister Siegmar Gabriel (C) peers between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bavarian state premier and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer during a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, April 14, 2016.
German Economy Minister Siegmar Gabriel (C) peers between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bavarian state premier and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer during a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, April 14, 2016. - Sputnik International
German Economy Minister Siegmar Gabriel (C) peers between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bavarian state premier and leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) Horst Seehofer during a news conference at the Chancellery in Berlin, Germany, April 14, 2016.

​Now, the SPD's party chief — and her vice-chancellor — Sigmar Gabriel has proposed Frank-Walter Steinmeier — her foreign minister and SPD party member — for the post. Steinmeier is popular and has been seen as a frontrunner, but Merkel has been trying to put up her own candidate, with little success. 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (R) chats with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier as she arrives for a weekly meeting of the German cabinet at the chancellery in Berlin on May 11, 2016 - Sputnik International
In Fear of Election Oblivion, Will Merkel Allow Steinmeier to Become President?
Steinmeier is the most popular politician in Germany, according to Der Spiegel magazine, but Merkel's CDU/CSU do not want the position to go to the SPD. Her best candidate would be Wolfgang Schauble, her finance minister from her own CDU party, but — at 74 — considered too old to take on the role for five years.

Thus, Merkel's in another mess. With Gauck being been nominated with cross-party support and her unable to find consensus for a candidate from her own party and the SPD on the front foot, she is looking increasingly isolated as a time when she needs her party to show unity with the federal election next year looming ever closer.

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