Anti-Communist pastor Gauck elected German president

Yahoo/Reuters ^

[nuconvert]

Germans resoundingly elected Joachim Gauck, a former Lutheran pastor and human rights activist from communist East Germany, as president of the European Union's largest country on Sunday, posing a potential political headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

What the hell does a German President do anyway??

[Riodacat]

What the hell does a German President do anyway??

He's the guy you call when you need a beer drinking buddy

[ProtectOurFreedom]

A "human rights activist Lutheran pastor from communist East Germany" is now an anti-communist? I suppose it's possible...

[arderkrag]

Duties And Functions

Duties and functions

The degree of power actually conferred upon the president by the Basic Law is ambiguous.[6] However, in practice, holders of the office treat it as a largely ceremonial one and act with the advice of the Federal Government. Unlike many constitutions, the Basic Law does not designate the head of state as the commander-in-chief of the military (ceremonially or otherwise). This role is vested in times of peace in the Minister of Defense, going to the Chancellor rather than the president in times of war, by Article 65a. Nevertheless Germany cannot declare a state of war without the approval of the president.[7] The president carries out the following duties:

Appointment of the Federal Government

The president proposes an individual as Federal Chancellor and then, provided he or she is subsequently elected by the Bundestag, appoints him or her to the office. However, the Bundestag is free to disregard the president's proposal and elect another individual to the post, whom the president is then obliged to appoint. The president appoints and dismisses the remaining members of the Federal Government "upon the proposal of the Chancellor." The president can dismiss the Chancellor, but only in the event that the Bundestag passes a Constructive Vote of No Confidence.[8] If this occurs, the president must dismiss the chancellor and appoint the successor requested by the Bundestag.[8]

Other appointments

The president appoints federal judges, federal civil servants and military officers. All such appointments require the counter-signature of either the chancellor or the relevant cabinet minister.[9]

Dissolution of the Bundestag

In the event that the Bundestag elects an individual for the office of chancellor by a plurality of votes, rather than a majority, the president can, at his or her discretion, either appoint that individual as chancellor or dissolve the Bundestag, triggering a new election. In the event that a vote of confidence is defeated in the Bundestag, and the incumbent chancellor proposes a dissolution, the president may, at his discretion, dissolve the body within 21 days. As of 2010, this power has only been applied three times in the history of the Federal Republic. In all three occurrences it is doubtful whether the motives for that dissolution were in accordance with the constitution's intentions. Each time the incumbent chancellor called for the vote of confidence with the stated intention of being defeated, in order to be able to call for new elections before the end of their regular term, as the Basic Law does not give the Bundestag a right to dissolve itself. The most recent occurrence was on 1 July 2005, when Chancellor Gerhard Schröder asked for a vote of confidence, which was defeated.[10]

Promulgation of the law

All federal laws must, after counter-signature, be signed by the president before they can come into effect.[11] Upon signing, the president has to check if the law was passed according to the order mandated by the constitution and/or if the content of the law is constitutional. If not, he or she has the right (and, some argue, the duty) to refuse to sign the law. This has happened rather rarely. In Art. 82 the constitution does not explicitly rule out that the president can even refuse to sign a law merely because he disagrees with its content, i.e. that he has a power of veto, but no president since World War II has ever used this theoretically given veto power. In any case, the presidents have only refused to sign laws that they believed to violate the constitution.

Foreign relations

The president represents Germany in the World (Art. 59 Basic Law), holds foreign visits and receives foreign dignitaries. He or she also concludes treaties with foreign nations (which do not come into effect until affirmed by the Bundestag), accredits German diplomats and receives the letters of accreditation of foreign diplomats.

Pardons and honours

The president may grant pardons if the person concerned had been convicted under federal jurisdiction and also confers decorations and honours.

State of legislational emergency

In the event of a national crisis, the emergency law reforms of 1968 designate the president as a mediator. If the Bundestag rejects a motion of confidence, but neither a new chancellor is elected nor the Bundestag is dissolved, the president may, by request of the cabinet, declare a "legislative state of emergency", which is quite different from a conventional state of emergency: If it is declared, during a limited period of time, bills proposed by the cabinet and designated as "urgent", but rejected by the Bundestag, become law nonetheless, if the Bundesrat does pass them. But the legislative state of emergency does not suspend basic human rights nor does it grant the executive branch any exceptional power. Such an emergency has never been declared.

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Good one...That’s kind of what I thought.

President Bratwurst and V.P. Lager Beer.

[Jeff Chandler]

Joachim Gauck

Nickname: Li'l Abner

[Pharmboy]

Nice one...

[Right Wing Assault]

He’s replacing Christian Wulff who replaced Horst Köhler.

Not being a close follower of German politics, I had to look these up.

[lightman]

Lutheran Ping!

Keep a Good Lent!

[wolficatZ]

“A “human rights activist Lutheran pastor from communist East Germany” is now an anti-communist? I suppose it’s possible...”

Ya think?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joachim_Gauck

[Savage Beast]

Anti-Communist? The American Left hates to learn that!

[Ditter]

Yikes! isn't that a “hail Hitler” salute she is giving?

[ProtectOurFreedom]

Thanks. His Wikipedia profile is sure encouraging, but there are some inherent conflicts there: “He was nominated as the candidate of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance ‘90/The Greens for President of Germany in the 2010 election.” How to square that circle?

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks nuconvert.

[wolf78]

Thanks. His Wikipedia profile is sure encouraging, but there are some inherent conflicts there: “He was nominated as the candidate of the Social Democratic Party and the Alliance ‘90/The Greens for President of Germany in the 2010 election.” How to square that circle?

That can be explained, but it's kind of tricky. In 2010 when Koehler resigned, Merkel lobbied for Wulff to become president, also because he was one of her few remaining rivals within the Christian Democratic party. Him holding the ceremonial office of president would neutralize Wulff politically.

Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU) and its coalition partner the Free Democrats (FDP) had the necessary votes. So in a ploy to expose Merkel's machinations and create dissent in the CDU-FDP coalition, the Social Democrats (SPD) and Greens nominated a conservative Lutheran with a free-market economic profile, basically the dream candidate for CDU and FDP voters, rather than the milquetoast Wulff.

When Wulff resigned, Greens and SPD were backed into a corner, they would have to nominate Gauck again or expose their own hypocrisy. And when the Free Democrats also called for Gauck, Merkel had to fall in line, although she probably would have preferred a candidate she could have controlled better, like Bishop Huber or the "green conservative" Toepfer.

[Minutemen]

"What the hell does a German President do anyway??"

Germany is still a manufacturing power-house with a well educated work force. I wish we (U.S.A.) had a president like him....
What the hell is our president doing??

[MinuteGal]

At least he isn't a commie atheist.

You take what you can get in the socialist European Union....even if it's small favors like a former Lutheran minister of uncertain moorings.

Leni

[ImJustAnotherOkie]

Our pres does plenty and pretty much all wrong. But I really don’t want to get started on that right now.