Altmaier and Kramp-Karrenbauer are no longer in the Bundestag

Voluntary resignation
Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Peter Altmaier are renouncing their parliamentary mandates

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer and Peter Altmaier are renouncing their parliamentary mandates.

© Kay Nietfeld / Picture Alliance

A generation change is needed. That is why the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Economic Affairs want to vacate their seats in the Bundestag.

Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier and Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer are renouncing their parliamentary mandates. The two CDU politicians announced this on Saturday in Saarbrücken. This clears the way for Nadine Schön and Markus Uhl, who will then join the Bundestag as successors from the CDU state list. The SPD won all four direct mandates in the federal election on September 26th in Saarland.

Economics Minister Altmaier spoke of a “generation change at a time when it is more necessary than ever.” He went on to say: “My heart bleeds when I see how little younger MPs have entered the Bundestag this time for the CDU / CSU. We have to do everything we can to make the young generation responsible.”

Kramp-Karrenbauer said it was not enough just to say that the country and the party were more important than one’s own political career. With her voluntary waiver of her mandate, she wanted to “set an example of how a generation change can be organized amicably,” said Defense Minister Kramp-Karrenbauer. She will continue her office as minister until a new government comes into office. After that, she continues to be “politically engaged – just maybe a little more free”.

Space for younger party friends

For their move, the two Saarland CDU federal ministers received the backing of their regional association, which wanted to expressly differentiate itself from the current conditions in the federal CDU. “This is emblematic of how the federal CDU must behave now,” said Saarland Prime Minister Tobias Hans (CDU) at the joint press conference. The federal CDU now also needs a generation change and a “new content orientation”.

Hans particularly emphasized the unity and consensual decision-making in his regional association, which should also be used by the federal CDU: “People want to see a bit of attitude from a party that has ruled for 16 years.” With a view to the ongoing exploratory talks between the SPD, FDP and the Greens to form a “traffic light” coalition, he said, even if other constellations were conceivable, “the signs are on traffic lights”. You have to accept that now and take on the role of the opposition.

The former CDU federal chairman Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected to the Bundestag via the top spot on the state list. Altmaier started in second place. By renouncing the mandate, they are making room for two younger party friends in the Union parliamentary group. Nadine Schön is 38 years old and has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009. She helped negotiate when the SPD and CDU agreed in principle on a binding quota for women on executive boards at the end of 2020. Markus Uhl (41) was elected to the Bundestag for the first time in 2017. Before that, the graduate in business administration worked in the Saarland State Chancellery from 2012 to 2017, most recently as head of department.

New content with new members

Schön praised the ministers’ waiver in their favor as a “vote of confidence” and announced that they would advance their key issues in the parliamentary group. Uhl spoke of a “signal of unity that we need much more at the federal level”.

Peter Altmaier (63) has been a member of the Bundestag since 1994. Kramp-Karrenbauer was Prime Minister of Saarland until she moved to Berlin as CDU General Secretary in 2018. In December 2018, she was elected CDU chairman with a tight result in a vote against the former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz. In February 2020 she announced her resignation as a consequence of the government crisis in Thuringia. Her successor at the head of the party was NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet. According to their own statements, Altmaier and Kramp-Karrenbauer will keep their ministerial posts until a new federal government is formed.

The Saarland Prime Minister Hans emphasized that the successors Nadine Schön and Markus Uhl stand for new content in the CDU – Schön for the topics of modern family and state modernization, Uhl for financial policy.

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dpa

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