The Green finance politician Lisa Paus is to become the new Federal Minister for Family Affairs. This is reported by several media, citing party circles. The decision is expected to be announced on Thursday afternoon. Paus succeeds Anne Spiegel and is also assigned to the left wing of the party.
Spiegel announced on Monday that it would resign from office. It had previously become known that she had gone on a four-week family vacation after the flood disaster in the summer of 2021. At that time she was environment minister in Rhineland-Palatinate.
Party leader Ricarda Lang had made it clear in advance that a woman should follow Spiegel and that competence is an important criterion. For the Greens, however, belonging to one of the wings, Realos or Left, is also an important criterion. Three of the five Green Federal Ministers are now Realos, two belong to the left wing.
The graduate economist Paus is 53 years old, comes from North Rhine-Westphalia and entered the Bundestag via the Berlin state list, where she has been a member since 2009. After her partner died of cancer, she has been a single parent since 2013.
Paus has many years of experience in financial and economic policy, but is also considered one of the leading minds behind the green concept for a so-called basic child security. Their introduction will also be the most important project for the new family minister. It is one of the central projects of the traffic light coalition.
The previous financial support payments from the state for children are to be bundled into the basic child security system and replaced by a basic amount for all children from birth. Because of the complexity of the topic – it’s about child benefit, Hartz IV, tax issues and much more – a working group was initially formed with experts from the Ministry for Family Affairs and the Federal Ministries for Finance, Justice, Labour, Education and Housing. You should work out the details.