Traffic light coalition
FDP politicians against strict quota for women in the federal cabinet
FDP board member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann speaks in the Bundestag
© Britta Pedersen / DPA
SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz originally announced a strict quota for women in the future federal cabinet. But the FDP does not want to participate.
Leading FDP politicians reject the strictly equal representation of the cabinet of a red-green-yellow federal government announced by SPD chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz. “When filling cabinet posts, qualifications and the ability to lead a ministry should always play a major role,” said FDP vice-president Wolfgang Kubicki to the newspapers of the Funke media group. “Rigid quota regulations are usually counterproductive because they reduce people to external characteristics.” It is therefore also possible that there are more women than men in the cabinet.
Professional qualifications should be the most important criterion
FDP board member Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann also emphasized that professional qualifications had to be the most important criterion when filling ministries. “If you want to reflect social reality in the cabinet, it of course makes sense to have ministers equally in the cabinet. But first and foremost, professional competence has to play a role, because belonging to a gender,” she said.
The question of who will take over which ministry will only be answered at the very end of coalition negotiations, said Kubicki. During the election campaign, Scholz had always emphasized that his cabinet would be made up of equal numbers of women and men. Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) did not set up her cabinet on an equal footing in 2018: at the beginning of the legislative period it consisted of seven ministers and nine ministers.