MUNICH : A Key Endorsement
The largest two political parties in Chancellor Helmut Kohl’s ruling coalition meet here next Monday to formally name the Federal Constitutional Court president, Roman Herzog, as their joint candidate to succeed Richard von Weizsaecker as Germany’s chief of state next summer.
The endorsement of Herzog, 59, comes almost exactly two months after Kohl’s hand-picked candidate for the German presidency, the little-known eastern German politician Steffen Heitmann, succumbed to public criticism following a series of gaffs and withdrew from the race.
The endorsement of both Kohl’s Christian Democrats and the Bavaria-based Christian Socialist Union will give Herzog, a respected jurist, the inside track to win the indirect presidential election next May 23.
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