Berlin The search for a successor for the resigned Federal Family Minister is the first test of the new Greens leadership. The party will take the necessary time, said party leader Ricarda Lang on Tuesday morning to RTL / ntv, but at the same time seek a quick decision. “That means I don’t think we’ll be dealing with this question beyond Easter.”
In fact, the personality is not easy to solve. Possible candidates are rare – a successor cannot be determined that quickly. “The decision must be made quickly, as it is the first stress test for the new Green Party chairmen,” Mannheim political scientist Constantin Wurthmann told the Handelsblatt. “The Greens now need a personality that they can be sure will last until 2025.”
A vacancy that was too long would be harmful, especially during the pandemic and the refugee movements from Ukraine, where women and children in particular are fleeing the war.
>> Also read here: SPD expects quick decision on Spiegel successor
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Party leader Lang indicated that a woman would again take over the post in the Ministry of Family Affairs. According to Lang, the Greens have many women politicians of all ages who have experience and expertise. “We’ll look at that now. And then we, as the national board, will make a joint proposal.” In the end, there could also be a surprise cast.
Ex-group leader Anton Hofreiter does not seem to get a chance again. He already had to give up a ministerial post in December. Like Spiegel, he belongs to the left wing of the party. But he is – in this case – the wrong gender. Because not only the Greens need a woman for internal party proportional representation purposes – Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) has also promised to fill his cabinet equally. But that’s only possible if Spiegel’s successor is female again.
Political scientist: Only “limited staff supply”
The parliamentary group leader Britta Haßelmann said on Tuesday on Deutschlandfunk: “Everyone who knows the Greens knows how important the quota is to us and how important it is for women to be represented in top positions. We will also take that into account when making the decision.”
Bundestag Vice President Katrin Göring-Eckardt, who was previously scheduled for the post, is a woman – but belongs to the Realo wing of the Greens. But he already has three of the five green cabinet members with Annalena Baerbock, Robert Habeck and Cem Özdemir. With Göring-Eckhardt, the balance of power after wings would finally no longer be balanced; the party left, to which Spiegel belongs, would lose out.
According to the family minister, she resigned due to “political pressure”.
(Photo: dpa)
This is how Katharina Dröge comes into play, who leads the parliamentary group together with Haßelmann, but has no experience in comparable positions. Before moving to the top of the parliamentary group in December 2021, the 37-year-old was economic policy spokeswoman for the Greens in the Bundestag.
Dröge belongs to the party left, but is respected across all wings. Most recently, she played a key role in the coalition negotiations to form the traffic light government. She was Green’s chief negotiator in the labor working group and was a member of the negotiating team in the business working group.
>> Also read here: The mirror resignation is the next embarrassment for Scholz and the traffic light
The political scientist Heinrich Oberreuter speaks of a “limited supply of personnel.” In this situation, the Greens would be well advised to disregard party proportional representation and to put the question of quotas and camps at the back. “We need factions and parties that are capable of acting – and characteristics of identity do not justify official responsibility, but above all competence,” he said.
According to Oberreuter, the Greens have a “momentum” that is mainly due to the popularity of the ministers Annalena Baerbock and Robert Habeck. In fact, according to the current opinion trend of the Insa survey institute, they lead the list of the most popular politicians for the “Bild”.
Spiegel receives a transitional allowance
Spiegel resigned as family minister on Monday afternoon. In a statement, she said she wanted to avert “damage from office” with the step. She was accused of a four-week family vacation shortly after the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley in 2021. At that time, as Rhineland-Palatinate’s Environment Minister, she was also responsible for civil protection.
According to the taxpayers’ association, Spiegel is now entitled to a transitional allowance of 75,600 euros. This was “totally oversized”, said the deputy chairman of the taxpayers’ association Michael Jäger of the “Bild”.
According to the Federal Ministers Act, the transitional allowance is paid for the same number of months that a retired minister has received official emoluments, “but for at least six months and a maximum of two years”. For the first three months there is therefore the full official salary and “for the rest of the reference period half of this salary”. Spiegel took over the ministry on December 9 and has been in office for four months since then.
Former Federal Family Minister Kristina Schröder (CDU) has defended the amount of the transitional allowance for Anne Spiegel. “She gets her full salary for three months and half her salary for three months. It’s really not oversized,” Schröder wrote on Twitter on Tuesday. “You need some time to look for a new job. And the family of six has to live on something,” she added.
More: Green Minister Spiegel declares resignation