The 2027 German presidential election, officially the 18th Federal Convention, will be held by the Federal Convention on 30 January 2027, before the end of the term of office of the current German president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Steinmeier is term-limited and thus cannot seek a third consecutive term, as specified in paragraph 2 of Article 54 of the Constitution.
Voting procedure The German president is elected indirectly by the Federal Convention, a non-permanent constitutional body whose sole function is to carry out this task. According to paragraph 3 of Article 54 of the Constitution, the Federal Convention is composed of all the members of the Bundestag (the federal parliament) and an equal number of state electors who are elected by the state parliaments based on the principles of proportional representation. Based on the electoral system introduced in 2023, the number of German MPs after the 2025 federal election is fixed at 630, leading to a Federal Convention of 1260 members.
The Federal Convention must convene no later than 30 days before the end of the incumbent's term of office or – in the event of a premature termination of office – no later than 30 days after the vacancy arises.
Voting in the Federal Convention is by secret ballot and without debate. In the first two rounds of voting, a majority of all members of the Convention (i.e. 631 votes) is required for a successful election. Starting with the third round, a plurality is sufficient (therefore, starting with the third round, an election can only fail if the two leading candidates receive the same number of votes).
Date and composition of the 18th Federal Convention On 26 February 2026, Julia Klöckner, the President of the Bundestag, ordered that the 18th Federal Convention be convened on 30 January 2027. According to the Federal Government's announcement of September 16, 2026, the 630 state electors are distributed among the sixteen states as follows:https://www.recht.bund.de/bgbl/1/2026/267/VO
StateElectorsNorth Rhine-Westphalia 134Free State of Bavaria99Baden-Württemberg82Lower Saxony63Hesse45Free State of Saxony33Rhineland-Palatinate31Berlin26Schleswig-Holstein21Brandenburg21Saxony-Anhalt17Free State of Thuringia17Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg13Mecklenburg-Vorpommern13Saarland8Free Hanseatic City of Bremen5
According to the schedule, no further elections are expected at the federal or state level until the 18th Federal Convention is convened. Assuming there are no more snap elections, and assuming that all state legislatures elect delegations that exactly reflect their compositions, the following distribution of seats is expected:https://www.wahlrecht.de/lexikon/bundesversammlung.html
PartyBundestag membersState electorsTotal electorsCDU/CSU208223–224431–432AfD150110–112260–262SPD120131–133251–253Grüne85108–112193–197Die Linke6414–1678–80FW01818FDP01111BSW077SSW112Thüringen.Gerecht022Non-inscrits/Independents202Total6306301260 Ranges (e.g., 0–1) indicate cases in which multiple candidates have an equal mathematical claim to the last seat in a state delegation; if necessary, the decision is made by lot.
Candidates Candidates must be nominated by a member of the Federal Convention and must consent to that nomination. Only German citizens eligible to be elected to the Bundestag who are at least 40 years old on the day of the election are eligible to run. An incumbent may be re-elected, but not for more than two consecutive terms; therefore, incumbent Frank-Walter Steinmeier is ineligible for the 2027 election, while all other living former presidents (Christian Wulff and Joachim Gauck) are, in theory, eligible.
Social discussion in advance As in past elections, there are calls in the run-up to the 2027 election for a woman to be elected. To date, all German presidents have been male. In August 2025, chancellor Friedrich Merz said that he could "very well imagine" supporting the election of a first female German president.n-tv.de: Merz kann sich sehr gut eine Bundespräsidentin vorstellen (German), August 2025
Declared candidates The following individuals have been formally proposed as candidates for the office of president:
Candidate(age) Party Party endorsements(as of September 2026) Office(s) held Combined votesof endorsing partysin the Federal Convention;631 votes requiredon the first two ballots Gabriele Krone-Schmalz() Independent BSWhttps://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article6a992de226f72e6fc72ecb6e/bsw-will-fruehere-ardkorrespondentin-krone-schmalz-als-bundespraesidentin.html None 7
Possible candidates The following individuals have been mentioned as potential candidates in political or media discussions and have not yet ruled out running for the office of president:
CDU/CSU
SPD
Independent
Declined candidates The following individuals have been mentioned as potential candidates in political or media discussions, but have ruled out running for the office of president: CDU/CSU Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission (2019–), Former Federal Minister for Defence (2013–2019), Former Federal Minister for Labour and Social Affairs (2009–2013), Former Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (2005–2009), Former Lower Saxony State Minister for Social Affairs, Women, Family and Health (2003–2005)Euronews.com: EU Commission chief von der Leyen says she's 'not available' for German presidency, 27 August 2025 Angela Merkel, former Chancellor of Germany (2005–2021), former Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear Safety (1994–1998), former Federal Minister for Women and Youth (1991–1994)
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