The fact that the former Prime Minister of Hesse, Roland Koch (CDU), is recovering from a heart operation has only been made public for one reason.

The 63-year-old was supposed to take part in the election of the Federal President this Sunday.

Although he is on the mend, the Federal Assembly is still a little too early for him, according to those around Koch.

Ewald Hetrodt

Correspondent for the Rhein-Main-Zeitung in Wiesbaden.

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In his place, Ismail Tipi, member of the state parliament, is traveling to Berlin.

As a result, the CDU must forgo the possibility of sending personalities to Berlin who are not or no longer part of the political establishment.

The press release that the President of the State Parliament, Boris Rhein, had sent out on Thursday shows how coveted the 16 places in the Union were.

For the first time in his career he can vote for the head of state.

"It is a great honor to me."

The FDP proceeds exactly as the Union had planned with Koch.

Among her four electors is the former Hessian party leader and member of the Bundestag, Stefan Ruppert, who has meanwhile migrated to business.

From the outset, the AfD only nominated active members of the state parliament for the trip to Berlin.

Half of the electors are named by parties

In the three other parties, there are more or less well-known people among the voters who embody a particular theme, in addition to the professionals.

Serpil Temiz-Unvar is traveling to Berlin with the Greens.

She lost her eldest son in the Hanau attack and, despite the suffering, founded an anti-racist educational initiative.

The Social Democrats had a very similar idea.

Ajla Kurtovic is one of her electors.

The woman, whose brother was also one of the victims of the Hanau bloody deed, received great recognition for her speech at the central funeral service in 2020.

The Greens also adorn themselves with Sandra Ciesek.

The professor of medical virology has made a name for herself far beyond Frankfurt in the course of the pandemic.

The left not only has the Frankfurt lawyer Seda Basay-Yildiz on its list, but also the nurse Christiane Schories.

Covid experts are also deployed in other federal states.

The Greens in Berlin have named Christian Drosten.

Özlem Türeci, co-founder of the Mainz-based company Biontech, is traveling to the capital with a ticket from the Rhineland-Palatinate SPD.

In addition to the virus and the Hanau assassination attempt, sport also influenced the selection, somewhat less conspicuously.

The President of the Frankfurt Eintracht, Peter Fischer, is committed to the SPD.

Only half of the participants in the Federal Assembly are nominated by the parties in the federal states.

The other half consists of the members of the Bundestag.

Because it has grown to 736 mandate holders in this electoral term, the Federal Assembly has more members than ever before.

This also has an effect in Hesse.

The parties sent a total of 53 voters on Sunday, eight more than five years ago.

The Rhine-Main area is even represented in Berlin with a candidate, the doctor from Mainz, Gerhard Trabert.

With him, the Left Party is once again putting a personality from the region up for election.

In 2010, Lukrezia Jochimsen, a member of the Bundestag and former HR television editor-in-chief, applied for the post of head of state.

She had just as few chances then as Trabert does today.

Roland Koch and the choice of Christian Wulff

By the way, many observers attributed the fact that Christian Wulff, the candidate of the Union, was elected in the election twelve years ago, to Koch.

The governing coalition of the CDU and FDP found itself in a deep crisis, which also affected the mood in the Federal Assembly.

In two ballots, Wulff did not manage to assert himself against the red-green candidate Joachim Gauck.

When the Union's electors gather for a crisis meeting, Chancellor Angela Merkel first gives a speech.

She is only acknowledged with scant applause.

Then Koch, who has already announced his departure from politics, takes the floor.

When he's done, applause erupts, which turns into rhythmic clapping.

At this moment everyone is sure that Wulff will be elected in the third ballot.

This Sunday there is only one serious candidate in Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

It all depends on the percentage of votes he wins the election with.