An indirect presidential election (officially the 17th Federal Convention) was held in Germany on 13 February 2022 to elect the next president of Germany.^[3]

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2022 German presidential election

← 2017 13 February 2022 2027 →

Nominee Frank-Walter Steinmeier Max Otte Party SPD CDU[lower-alpha 1] Home state Berlin North Rhine-Westphalia Electoral vote 1,045[2] 140 Percentage 78.04% 10.45% Nominators SPD, CDU/CSU, Grüne, FDP, SSW AfD   Nominee Gerhard Trabert Stefanie Gebauer Party Independent FW Home state Rhineland-Palatinate Brandenburg Electoral vote 96 58 Percentage 7.17% 4.33% Nominators Left FW, BVB/FW

President before election Frank-Walter Steinmeier SPD Elected President Frank-Walter Steinmeier SPD

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Because of the COVID-19 pandemic and the high number of delegates, the meeting took place in the Paul-Löbe-Haus [de], spread over several floors, unlike its usual location in the plenary hall of the Bundestag.^[4]

Frank-Walter Steinmeier became the first Social Democrat to be re-elected as president.

The German Basic Law, the Grundgesetz, mandates that presidential elections must be held no later than thirty days before the sitting President's term ends, unless the presidency falls vacant prematurely.^[5]

On 19 March 2017 Frank-Walter Steinmeier of the Social Democratic Party, who was elected by the 16th Federal Convention on 12 February 2017, entered office and started his first five-year term as president. Therefore, the next Federal Convention could not convene later than 16 February 2022. The Bundestag's Council of Elders scheduled the 17th Federal Convention for 13 February 2022.^[6] If Steinmeier's term had ended prematurely, the Federal Convention would have met no later than thirty days after the start of the vacancy and the President of the Bundesrat would have become acting president in the interim.^[7]

The Federal Convention consists of all the members of the current Bundestag (736 members) and an equal number of state electors, allocated to the sixteen states of Germany in proportion to their population. The state electors are elected by the state parliaments.^[7]

The composition of the Federal Convention:^[8]

As is common for the state-nominated delegates of the constitutional convention, a number of non-politicians - some of them celebrities - are nominated by various parties. During the 17th Federal Convention, virologists Sandra Ciesek and Christian Drosten are both among the members as is infectious disease specialist Marylyn Addo, all of whom came to broader public prominence during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Baden-Württemberg, the SPD and FDP (both in opposition at the state level) agreed to nominate a joint list with 13 members proposed by the SPD and 12 by the FDP.

Every member of the Federal Convention (members of the Bundestag and state electors, once they are elected by their respective state parliament) can propose candidates for the presidency. It is required that the President be a German citizen and at least 40 years old. Every candidate has to declare their consent to running. Candidates can be proposed before the Federal Convention and (theoretically) during the convention before every ballot. If the president-elect is a member of a legislature or a government at the federal or state level, they have to resign from that office before the start of their term. A sitting president is not allowed to run for a third consecutive term.^[5]