It would have been a big surprise if the Greens had decided on their own candidate, who they wanted to put up against the incumbent Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on February 13th.

As things stand, it would have been a candidate, which is probably one of the reasons why the party among the three coalition partners of the traffic light government took the longest time to come to a decision.

Because it is correct to say that the time is overripe for a woman at the head of the state.

But it is also correct that the SPD and FDP had no good reason to refuse Frank-Walter Steinmeier's request for a second term in office.

To drop it in favor of a woman would have followed the trend of the times to put morality before quality.

In addition, the SPD would have been left behind, because the FDP and the Greens had chosen the candidate among themselves.

Not only because together they are stronger than the SPD in the traffic light calculation, but also because the “little ones” would have been “on” again, and rightly so.

But as it is, with no prospect of a majority for a woman, the CDU / CSU apparently also accepts its fate. There was only a faint hope for her that with a woman as a candidate, the traffic light alliance for Steinmeier could crumble. With whom could it have worked? Serap Guler, Helge Braun's candidate for the post of general secretary, warned of an "alibi candidate". Perhaps the very one who spoke up who could claim to not be exactly that.

Friedrich Merz shouldn't have been accused of that either.

However, the SPD, FDP and the Greens would have worried that the “conservative” of all people dared to make so much progress.

Merz would have shaken off a problem with Serap Güler right away: there would have been no votes from the AfD.

However, one or the other in the CDU and CSU should have been convinced.