Germany to elect ‘anti-Trump’ Frank-Walter Steinmeier as new president
Billed as Germany’s “anti-Trump”, centre-left former foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is set to be elected on Sunday as the new ceremonial head of state. The 61-year-old, who regularly polls as Germany’s most popular politician, will represent the EU’s top economy abroad and act as a kind of moral arbiter for the nation.
His Social Democrats (SPD) hope the appointment will boost
their fortunes just as their candidate Martin Schulz, the former European
parliament president, readies to challenge Chancellor Angela Merkel in
September elections. Steinmeier is expected to receive a large majority of
votes after Merkel’s conservatives, lacking a strong candidate of their own,
agreed to back him to replace incumbent Joachim Gauck, 77, a former pastor from
ex-communist East Germany.
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The vote will be held
in Berlin’s glass-domed Reichstag building by a 1,260-strong special Federal
Assembly, made up of national lawmakers and electors sent from Germany’s 16
states – among them deputies but also artists, writers, musicians and national
football coach Joachim Loew. With his snowy white hair, round glasses and
dimpled smile, Steinmeier is one of Germany’s best-known politicians, having
twice served as top diplomat under Merkel for a total of seven years.
Though the trained lawyer is usually measured in his speech,
in the thick of last year’s US election campaign Steinmeier labelled Donald
Trump a “hate preacher”. After the billionaire won the White House, Steinmeier
predicted relations would get “more difficult” and said his staff were
struggling to detect any “clear and coherent” foreign policy positions from
Trump.
As Steinmeier has prepared for the new post, which he
assumes on March 19, he has vowed to serve as a “counterweight to the trend of
boundless simplification”, calling this approach “the best antidote to the
populists”. The Berliner Morgenpost newspaper judged that Steinmeier looks set
to be “the anti-Trump president”.
Steinmeier is only known to have lost his cool once, in
2014, when he yelled at Berlin protesters who had accused him of being a
“warmonger” over his Ukraine policy. The outburst was so unusual it became a
minor YouTube hit. A policy wonk by nature, Steinmeier served as advisor and
then chief of staff to Merkel’s predecessor, the SPD’s Gerhard Schroeder.
In 2009, Steinmeier ran against Merkel and lost badly, only
to return years later to serve in her cabinet. Political scientist Michael Broening
of the SPD’s think-tank the Friedrich Ebert Foundation said that “as foreign
minister, Steinmeier often acted as a voice of reason, bridging gaps and
bringing people together”.
“It is hardly surprising that Steinmeier has branded himself
as the essential anti-Trump,” he added.
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