Main German opposition party backs second term for president

By GEIR MOULSON
Associated Press

BERLIN (AP) — Germany’s biggest opposition party says it will support the reelection of President Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Wednesday’s move gives the incumbent a clear run to a second term. A few figures in ex-Chancellor Angela Merkel’s center-right Christian Democratic Union had advocated nominating a woman to run as Germany’s next head of state when a special assembly meets on Feb. 13 to elect a new president. Germany hasn’t yet had a female president. But the chances of a challenger being elected more or less evaporated on Tuesday when the Greens became the last of the three parties in new Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to endorse a second term for Steinmeier. The incumbent is widely respected across Germany’s political mainstream.