The federal chairman of the Free Voters, Hubert Aiwanger, is constantly looking for ways to make his party better known beyond its Bavarian stronghold.
He found what he was looking for in the federal presidential election, which is due this Sunday.
The free voters send the 41-year-old Stefanie Gebauer into the race.
Although she has no chance against incumbent Frank-Walter Steinmeier, she has a few advantages that could contribute to the image of the Free Voters: As the only woman who also comes from the East (Brandenburg), Gebauer takes on three men from the west on.
Timo Frasch
Political correspondent in Munich.
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By being a local politician and cashier at the Kremmen volunteer fire brigade development association on the one hand and a physicist on the other, she fits the DNA of the Free Voters and yet points beyond them.
From Aiwanger's point of view, it should be particularly nice that he has a candidate who, in her own words, did her doctorate "in the field of extrasolar planets", while the CSU of the declared astro fan Markus Söder supports the more down-to-earth Steinmeier.
After Gebauer had already been presented in Berlin on Tuesday, the presentation in Munich followed on Wednesday, which was taken so seriously by the Free Voters that they had more prominent party figures on the podium than journalists in the conference room.
The desired "signal" was made all too clear by constant repetition: Gebauer was a "young power woman" who could contribute her "feminine feeling" and "female empathy and knowledge" and neither from the "Berlin political machine" nor from the "Berliner Politics Bubble" come.
Gebauer herself has already accepted the role intended for her.
As the “Citizen President”, she wants to encourage women in the country in particular.
Her nomination was preceded by a dispute in the party.
Aiwanger first wanted a woman from the Bavarian state parliament, the parliamentary group felt overwhelmed.
Gebauer is now "a very broadly secured candidature," says Aiwanger.
She had “gone through all the committees”.
Shortly before that, he had recommended that the members of the Federal Assembly "elect something different than what the party committees are putting in front of them".