Christine Lambrecht (l.): “I’m counting on Nancy Faeser not only becoming the top candidate, but also the first woman Prime Minister in Hesse.”
(Photo: dpa)
Berlin Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser (SPD) has countered speculation that she could run as the SPD’s top candidate in next year’s state elections in Hesse. A ministry spokesman told the Handelsblatt that Faeser was doing her job “with all her might”. All other questions did not arise.
Federal Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht (SPD) had previously expressed the expectation that Faeser would leave the Federal Cabinet in 2023 and move to Hesse. “I’m counting on Nancy Faeser not only becoming a top candidate, but also the first female Prime Minister in Hesse,” said Lambrecht in an interview with the news portal “T-online”.
Faeser’s spokesman referred to earlier statements by the minister about a possible top candidate – most recently in the “Spiegel”. “The decision is not pending. That’s why I don’t have to worry about it,” Faeser said. Her position as Minister of the Interior makes her very happy because she has worked as an interior politician at the state level in Hesse for the past 15 years.
In coalition circles, Lambrecht’s statement on Faeser’s plans for the future is said to have caused astonishment. Criticism came from the opposition. “In any case, it harms factual and specialist politics if you make a change here so early,” said Clara Bünger, a left-wing domestic politician. The political will for the “structural changes” in the Federal Ministry of the Interior is obviously missing here, without which an effective fight against right-wing extremism and improvements in the asylum law could not be achieved.
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“Ms. Lambrecht now finally declares Ms. Faeser to be a minister on call,” said the domestic political spokesman for the Union faction, Alexander Throm (CDU). However, in view of the many crises and challenges, Germany cannot afford to have a Federal Minister of the Interior on call. The position requires full commitment.
CDU politician: “The Federal Ministry of the Interior is not a rest ramp”
Throm added: “I can’t imagine that Ms. Lambrecht will succeed her as a failed Minister of Defense – the Federal Ministry of the Interior is not a rest ramp.”
The state elections in Hesse are expected to take place in autumn 2023. A coalition of the CDU and the Greens currently governs the country. Prime Minister Volker Bouffier (CDU) is leaving office at the end of May. The incumbent President of the Landtag, Boris Rhein, is to succeed him.
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The Hessian SPD will not decide who will be the top candidate in the election until the beginning of next year. It cannot be ruled out that Faeser could become one. At the beginning of May, Faeser was re-elected as state party leader at a state party conference in Marburg with 94.3 percent. Shortly before her election, the 51-year-old said that even if she was in Berlin a lot in her new office, “in Brussels or the whole republic, nothing has changed: my heart is in Hesse”.
Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) commented on the question of a possible top candidate for Faeser at the beginning of December when he presented the SPD ministers for his cabinet. “It’s clear,” Scholz said at the time, “a cabinet post is being filled here, that’s what’s at stake now and that’s being taken care of. That’s something that needs to be pursued with a long-term perspective.” And all other questions would be decided in Hesse when they were ready.
Lambrecht has long been criticized
It is no coincidence that Lambrecht is already bringing up Faeser’s departure as interior minister. Because there were always rumors that she could then move up to the Ministry of the Interior. It was “no secret” that she was “always interested in legal and domestic politics,” Lambrecht told T-Online.
Even during the coalition negotiations for the government under Chancellor Scholz, Lambrecht seemed set as interior minister. According to the SPD party circles, she had expected this until the end. Eventually she became Secretary of Defense. She now wants to remain so until the end of the legislative period.
She took over the job of Secretary of Defense. “And anyone who knows me knows that I also fulfill the tasks I have taken on,” said the SPD politician when asked whether she ruled out such a change. Referring to a statement by Chancellor Scholz, she emphasized: “My goal at the end of the election period is that, looking back, you can say: You finally made sure that the Bundeswehr is properly equipped.”
Lambrecht has been criticized for a long time, most recently because her son flew in a government helicopter. CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz called on Scholz to dismiss Lambrecht in the Bundestag on Thursday.
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