BERLIN: Germany looks set to get its first female head of state next year after Chancellor Friedrich Merz nominated Ilse Aigner on Monday as his conservatives’ candidate to replace President Frank-Walter Steinmeier in the largely ceremonial role.

With the support of Merz’s conservatives, their Social Democrat partners in Germany’s ruling coalition and the Greens, Aigner is very likely to be elected in January by the Federal Convention comprising members of the lower house of parliament and delegates from Germany’s 16 federal state parliaments. The term of Steinmeier, a Social Democrat, ends in March.

Aigner said that if elected, she would work to overcome divisions in German society. “Our country and our democracy yes, they are under attack from within and without,” she said, standing alongside Merz.

“Extremists are celebrating their triumphs, and ideologies are on the rise. Division is being fuelled, and consensus is being disparaged,” she said.

Aigner, a member of the Christian Social Union, the Bavarian sister party of Merz’s Christian Democrats, did not elaborate, but Germany’s mainstream parties are having to contend with the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, which opinion polls suggest could become the biggest party after the next federal elections, due in early 2029.

Published in Dawn, November 10th, 2026