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The 2027 German presidential election, officially known as the 18th Federal Convention, must be held by the Federal Convention by 18 February 2027, 30 days before the end of the term of office of the current German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
According to paragraph 3 of Article 54 of the Constitution, the Federal Convention is composed of members of the German Bundestag and an equal number of state electors who are elected by the state parliaments based on the principles of proportional representation. [1] Based on the electoral system introduced in 2023, the number of German MPs after the 2025 federal election is 630, leading to a Federal Convention of 1260 members. The distribution of state electors onto the states depends on population of the state eligible to vote.
This process is regulated by the Law on the election of the Federal President by the Federal Assembly. [2]
The current Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier cannot be re-elected in this election because he has won a maximum of two consecutive terms of office specified in paragraph 2 of Article 54 of the Constitution.
The most promising candidate for the federal presidency is usually presented by the governing coalition factions in the Bundestag, sometimes together with one or more opposition parties. [3] [4] However, there have also been cases in which the opposition parties have put up a successful candidate against the governing coalition (1979 and 2005). The background to this is that the governing coalition at federal level does not necessarily have its own majority in the Federal Convenction.
The current governing coalition of CDU/CSU and SPD has a narrow majority of 12 seats in the Bundestag. There are five state elections to be held in 2026, before the 18th Federal Convention (Baden-Württemberg, Berlin, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Rhineland-Palatinate and Saxony-Anhalt). As such, the final composition of the convention is yet to be decided.
Discussions and speculations on the eve of the elections indicate a social debate. [5] [6] [7] Malu Dreyer, Minister-president of the Rhineland-Palatinate and part of the Social Democratic Party of Germany, said in March 2024 that a female federal president would encourage many women in Germany and beyond. [8] Even before the last election in 2022, the fact that there has never been a woman in the office of the Federal President was widely discussed. [9] [10] [11] But Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, who was running for a second term at the time, was heavily supported. [12] [13] So far, women have mostly been candidates, but they had no chance of success because of the majority. [14] In August 2025 chancellor Friedrich Merz said, he would prefer a first woman German president. [15]