Politics Stack Exchange is a question and answer site for people interested in governments, policies, and political processes. It only takes a minute to sign up.
Sign up to join this community
The German president limit limit is "Renewable once, consecutively".
Does this mean the he can only be re-elected once and only if immediately after his first term.
OR
Does it mean that he can be re-elected as many times as he can just as long as no more than two consecutive terms.
There is no precedent for either scenario. It seems that legal commentary reads this as "no more than two consecutive terms, unlimited total terms."
The English translation of the Basic Law (a document that is for all intents and purposes an long term interim constitution) states in Section 5, Article 54, Clause 2 (emphasis mine):
The term of office of the Federal President shall be five years. Re-election for a consecutive term shall be permitted only once.
This wording appears to state that the President of Germany can be elected to an unlimited number of terms but can not run for a third consecutive term (i.e. they must sit out for a term before being able to be elected again).
