Overview
- Markus Söder, who voiced support Friday in a newspaper interview, said the CDU/CSU will present a candidate after the summer.
- Cross-party backing widened as SPD leaders praised Ilse Aigner as a bridge-builder, and FDP’s Wolfgang Kubicki and CDU’s Sepp Müller also voiced support.
- Aigner, 61, has not declared a bid, and her office says she will not engage in speculation about the post. She leads the Bavarian state parliament and earlier served as federal agriculture minister.
- Chancellor Friedrich Merz has stayed publicly noncommittal, with Union and SPD leaders aiming to settle on a single nominee in the autumn.
- The Federal Assembly will choose a successor on January 30, 2027, and its 1,260 electors drawn equally from the Bundestag and state parliaments could give a Union–SPD deal a workable majority.