However, the popular incumbent Gerhard Schröder won an absolute majority in the Lower Saxony legislature, while the state CDU under Wulff received one of its worst results, leading some observers to doubt the wisdom of the provincial party nominating a young and neophyte candidate for Premier.

However, supported by a wave of sympathy for his potential candidacy for chancellor in the 1998 federal election, Schröder was returned to power by an enhanced majority – leaving Wulff to serve five more years as state leader of the opposition.

The latter soon stumbled over a scandal involving free travel paid by TUI and was succeeded by young parliamentary leader Sigmar Gabriel.

In the wake of the 1999 scandal, as well as rising discontent with Schröder's federal cabinet, the Christian Democrats rose in the opinion polls and became a serious contender for power in the 2003 parliamentary election.

Wulff had been one of the four deputy chairmen of the CDU party at the federal level after 7 November 1998, and had been a board member of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation after 2003.

Wulff entered the race as the favourite to win the election and essentially campaigned on a platform of fiscal restraint and clear-cut reforms in the areas of law enforcement and education.

The Christian Democrats, in the political wilderness since the 1990 Schröder victory, were returned to power with an absolute majority in the state parliament, gaining 48.3% of the vote.

As Minister President of Lower Saxony, Wulff pursued a multitude of reforms, including a restructuration of the primary education system in the state, as well as an increase of police officers on the beat.

However, the premature dissolution of the Bundestag in 2005 and the subsequent election of Chancellor Angela Merkel largely put an end to further speculation about Wulff's future at the time.

Outside the mold of a typical conservative, he was able to attract swing voters disillusioned with the slowness of reforms, as well as the then rather high rates of unemployment in Germany.

Indeed, he worked on increasing his visibility beyond Lower Saxony's confines, particularly by appearing frequently on television shows and giving interviews to the national newspapers.

In this context, it is important to note that Chancellor Merkel had been severely criticised for a lack of emotional warmth during the 2005 federal election campaign, leading to a worse-than-expected result for the Christian Democrats.

His main contender in the election was Joachim Gauck, a civil rights activist from East Germany and former Federal Commissioner for the Stasi Records.

[15] Wulff's candidacy for President of Germany in the 2010 presidential election was formally confirmed by Angela Merkel, Guido Westerwelle and Horst Seehofer, the heads of the governing CDU, FDP and CSU parties, during the evening of 3 June 2010.

He criticised the European Central Bank (ECB), which had entered a second round of bond buy-ups from heavily indebted euro-zone nations, calling the plan to stabilise the euro "legally and politically questionable".

After the district attorney's office in Hanover had requested the lifting of his immunity on 16 February 2012,[20] Wulff then resigned as German President the following day.

[5] After leaving public office, Wulff represented Germany at several public events, including the state funerals of Abdullah ibn Abd al-Aziz of Saudi Arabia (2015)[22] and of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan (2022)[23] as well as the inauguration of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine (2019) and inauguration of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey (2023).

[26] In August 2017, it was revealed that Wulff also works as an advisor for the German branch of Yargici, a Turkish high-street fashion company.