Germany’s president: Political partying

Date: 06/03/04

Why it has taken so long to fill a ceremonial post

CHOOSING Germany's federal president ought to be easy. The head of state has no real power, and is chosen indirectly every five years by a federal convention that has no other function. Yet finding the right candidate has often proved hard. This time, the opposition has been quarrelling for months over who should succeed the (Social Democrat) president, Johannes Rau, in May. Conservatives and liberals have been trying to agree a joint candidate - who should win, as they hold a majority in the federal convention. On March 4th the parties finally agreed to nominate Horst Kohler, a Christian Democrat who is boss of the International Monetary Fund.

Being Germany's federal president is not such an easy job. The president is supposed to be a monarch of sorts, and a force for social and political cohesion. But lacking royal legitimacy and real power, a president must use the bully pulpit to be effective. So a president's success is measured by the quality of his speeches. Theodor Heuss, the first president, was considered a master, who spoke often about the Nazi past. His successor, Heinrich Lubke, was a failure (one speech in Africa began “ladies and gentlemen, dear negroes”).

Yet it is indirect election that makes the selection process most arduous, because it becomes a political power game. The game has been messier this time, because on its outcome has hung the career of all three opposition leaders: Angela Merkel, Edmund Stoiber and Guido Westerwelle, the bosses respectively of the Christian Democrats, of Bavaria's Christian Social Union and of the Free Democrats.

If Mrs Merkel had let a Free Democrat through, her chances of being opposition candidate for chancellor in 2006 would have been hit. Mr Stoiber wanted to avoid being a candidate himself, because he wants another shot at the chancellorship (he lost in 2002). And Mr Westerwelle was fighting for political survival. He might have quit had he not persuaded the Christian Democrats to go along with, at least, a liberal conservative. A joint opposition candidate needs Free Democratic votes.

The wheeling and dealing has made some worry that the office has been permanently sullied by party politics. Matters were further complicated by the elections in Hamburg on February 29th. The Christian Democrats won an absolute majority in Hamburg's parliament, and the Free Democrats failed to get enough votes even to get in (as did the right-wing populists).

This week, the news of the chances of Wolfgang Schauble, a former chairman of the Christian Democrats who was widely considered the best candidate, was changing almost hourly. But in the end, the conservatives caved in to the Free Democrats' refusal to back him. For a day, they toyed with Annette Schavan, a culture minister from Baden-Wurttemberg, who would have been the first female president. But in the end they settled on Mr Kohler, a less weighty figure than Mr Schauble but one who is acceptable to the Free Democrats. Perhaps, next time, Germany should elect its president directly instead.

Why has it taken so long to fill the largely ceremonial post of Germany's federal president.

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