Joachim Gauck would have become federal president already in 2010, if the vote had taken place by universal suffrage. And instead the electoral system rewarded the candidate supported by Angela Merkel, that Christian Wulff forced to resign last Friday following the scandal that erupted over a series of personal favors obtained by the now ex-president.
Majority and opposition, at the end of the consultations (during which the chancellor tried to propose another man of hers up to the last minute), have now found an agreement to nominate the 72-year-old Gauck to succeed the outgoing Wulff on 18 March.
Gauck is an institutional figure, considered in his country of high moral authority: he does not in fact belong to any party and was a militant for human rights in the former Gdr. His opposition to the regime also led him to chair the commission charged with dissolving the Stasi.
The new president will therefore have to be elected on March 18 by the federal assembly composed of deputies from the Bundestag and delegates from the world of politics and civil society chosen by the regional parliaments.
