Minister President of Lower Saxony the CDU nomination for President in 1979 and Chancellor in 1980, Gerhard Schröder became Chancellor of Germany in 1998, his successor Sigmar Gabriel is the current SPD chairman and Christian Wulff was elected President of Germany in 2010. Examples of Lower Saxony's influence on policy debates in federal politics include Ernst Albrecht's advocacy of financial transfers from other states and Gerhard Schröder's usage of Lower Saxony's "Bundesrat" votes in matters of fiscal and tax policy. Political Party: Minister President of Lower Saxony The Minister President of Lower Saxony (), also referred to as Premier or Prime Minister, is the head
Christian Wulff 31 May 2010. He won 625 of 1242 votes on the third ballot of the Federal Convention. He became Germany's youngest president at the age of 51 and was sworn in on 2 July 2010 in front of the Bundestag and the Bundesrat. His main contender in the election was Joachim Gauck, a civil rights activist from East Germany and a former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records. Not a member of any party himself, Gauck was nominated by the opposition SPD and Greens as their presidential candidate on . Wulff was succeeded as Premier of Lower Saxony by David