Germany: CDU names Ilse Aigner as candidate for president

The steering committtee of the CDU have announced Bavarian politician Ilse Aigner as presidential candidate. This gives her a good chance of becoming the first woman to occupy the role. Chancellor Friedrich Merz 's Christian Democrats (CDU) on Monday confirmed that they would be putting forward Ilse Aigner as a candidate to be Germany 's next head of state.

Aigner's own CSU , the CDU's Bavarian sister party, already supports her candidacy — and the federal coalition partners the Social Democrats have also made clear they would endorse her nomination if the conservatives agree on it. This means the 61-year-old has a good chance of taking up the largely ceremonial role when the special committee that elects a German president convenes in late January. While Angela Merkel famously served as the country's most powerful politician for more than a decade, Germany has never had a female head of state.

Chancellor Merz announced the decision alongside Aigner at a Berlin press conference around 1 p.m. local time in the CDU's Konrad Adenauer House.