Berlin The SPD has revealed the secret and announced its seven ministers. The currently most important personnel: The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach is the new Federal Minister of Health. Most citizens would have wished that the next health minister would be a specialist and that his name was Karl Lauterbach, said Olaf Scholz. “He will.”
The previous Minister of Justice, Christine Lambrecht, will surprisingly become Minister of Defense. The Hessian SPD leader Nancy Faeser is planned as Federal Minister of the Interior. As expected, Hubertus Heil remains Minister of Labor.
Federal Minister for Building and Housing is to be Klara Geywitz, with whom Scholz applied unsuccessfully for the party chairmanship two years ago. The previous Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze takes over the development aid ministry. Rolf Mützenich was also traded for the post, but he remains the parliamentary group leader. The head of the Chancellery is the Scholz confidante Wolfgang Schmidt.
The SPD did not want to announce its ministers until after their extraordinary party conference on the weekend. The delegates should be able to vote on the coalition agreement independently of persons.
For a long time, the SPD ministers did not know whether they would move into the cabinet or not. When asked about his possible future, cabinet members said on Saturday that “Olaf will tell me on Monday”.
According to the party, Scholz is said to have struggled for a long time in filling some ministerial posts, especially with the health department. There were loud public demands to fill the office with Lauterbach.
Lauterbach has not had a good stand in the SPD since his candidacy for party leadership in 2019, Lauterbach smashed a lot of porcelain back then, and is seen by many in the SPD as unpredictable. But now Scholz has decided in favor of Lauterbach. The people trusted Lauterbach, and nobody brought such expertise to the office, it said in the SPD. Perhaps Scholz let himself be driven a bit by the pressure of the public with this personality.
Minister of Health as the top pandemic fighter
Even in normal times, the Ministry of Health is a difficult job. Those who take on the job have to deal with powerful lobby associations for pharmacists, doctors, hospitals, health insurance companies and other areas of the health care system, which often work against one another and block reforms.
Due to the corona crisis, the health minister as the top pandemic fighter is now more important than hardly any other cabinet member besides the Federal Chancellor.
This harbors opportunities, but also risks, as the example of Jens Spahn (CDU) shows. At the beginning of the pandemic, Spahn was certified as having proper crisis management, and he was even traded as a possible candidate for Union Chancellor. After that he experienced a deep crash and is criticized for omissions from many quarters, including from his own ranks.
Occupying the Ministry of Defense was not easy for Scholz either. The defense minister has to grapple with many problems that cannot be solved overnight: the ailing equipment of the armed forces, arms contracts that are getting out of hand or delicate missions abroad.
Given the challenges of the office, it makes perfect sense for the experienced Christine Lambrecht to take over the department. Lambrecht was first State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance and then Minister of Justice in the grand coalition. At the end of the electoral term, she was also head of the Family Ministry on an interim basis.
At the presentation of the SPD ministers, Lambrecht said that her nomination as defense minister would certainly be “a surprise” for many. You yourself see a challenge in this. “The soldiers of the Bundeswehr deserve that we treat them with appreciation and respect, and I would like to explicitly include the reservists.” The future minister said it was important to have the appropriate equipment.
The procurement system must be modernized for this. “We have to make this profession attractive so that it is demographically stable,” she said, referring to the aging average of the men and women in the Bundeswehr.
Interior Minister Faeser: A personality that is not without risk
Lambrecht has long been considered a favorite for the Ministry of the Interior. Nancy Faeser, head of the state of Hesse, is now taking over this job. A personality that is not without risk.
The 51-year-old is certified as having a good job as the Hessian SPD leader within the party. In the SPD, the chances of winning Hesse back from the CDU in two years’ time in the state elections are not considered to be bad.
However, Faeser has no previous government experience. Now she runs one of the largest and most important houses with the Ministry of the Interior. “Security in this government will be in the hands of strong women,” said Scholz.
SPD names ministers: Lauterbach takes over health
Klara Geywitz, who surprisingly becomes Minister of Construction – a central issue for the SPD – also moves into the cabinet. In the coalition agreement, the traffic light promises to build 400,000 new apartments over the next four years, 100,000 of which are state subsidized. This means that Geywitz will be well utilized.
Geywitz has been the SPD party vice since 2019, but has hardly appeared in the office so far. Some in the SPD were therefore surprised that Geywitz took over the ministry, which is important from the SPD’s point of view.
The SPD remains dominated by men
With the appointment of four SPD ministers, the federal cabinet now has equal representation, as Scholz has promised. At least if you don’t count Scholz as Chancellor. And: The women also hold influential ministries, such as Lambrecht and Faeser, which the SPD emphasizes accordingly.
However, the truth also includes: Many influential posts in the SPD are occupied by men. When the traffic light coalition committee meets in the future, only one woman from the SPD with party leader Saskia Esken will take part, the rest will be men: the future chancellor Scholz, the future SPD party leader Lars Klingbeil, the future SPD general secretary Kevin Kühnert and parliamentary group leader Rolf Mützenich.
The SPD ministerial team is also strongly influenced by West German: two ministers each come from North Rhine-Westphalia and two from Hesse, but with Geywitz only one real East German is represented in the Kabintt. In the run-up to the allocation of ministers, East German state associations had therefore advertised Carsten Schneider as minister. The Thuringian, previously Parliamentary Managing Director of the Bundestag faction, went away empty-handed.
It is very likely that an East German will at least take over the newly created office of State Minister for Equal Living Conditions, which will be hung in the Chancellery. The appointment of the Minister of State for Refugees and Migration is also still open.
Speculation about Andrea Nahles
Scholz did not want to comment on other personal details that were still pending in addition to the assignment of the ministers. It is speculated that the former SPD party leader Andrea Nahles could become the new head of the Federal Employment Agency. The successor to Bundesbank boss Jens Weidmann must also be arranged.
Scholz said that these personal details would only be decided after the formation of the government. In coalition circles it was said that Weidmann’s successor had not yet been decided. The favorite for the post is the experienced central banker Joachim Nagel, who is a member of the SPD. The SPD has the right to propose the position.
According to Handelsblatt information, Scholz has already decided against another important personnel issue: Jörg Kukies, who has previously been Scholz’s State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance, is to become the new economic advisor in the Federal Chancellery.
The SPD ministers are to be sworn in after the chancellor election on Wednesday. But they are still ordinary members of parliament or civil servants. So said the future building minister Klara Geywitz after the end of the cabinet presentation. “So, now I’ll take the S-Bahn and drive back to work in Potsdam.”
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