The SPD health expert Karl Lauterbach becomes the new Federal Minister of Health. This was announced by the designated Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin. Defense minister will be Christine Lambrecht, interior minister the Hessian SPD state chairwoman Nancy Faeser. Hubertus Heil will continue to head the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs. Klara Geywitz takes over the building ministry; With her, Scholz had unsuccessfully applied for the SPD chairmanship two years ago. The previous Federal Environment Minister Svenja Schulze is moving to the Development Aid Ministry.
As a possible health minister, the SPD member of the Bundestag and epidemiologist Lauterbach had many advocates. However, there were also doubts in the SPD as to whether he would be the right person as Federal Minister and thus the highest crisis manager. Scholz was recently criticized for leaving this question open until Monday. After all, it is central in view of the massive fourth corona wave.
He had made a promise to fill his cabinet: it should include at least as many women as men. If the Chancellor is counted, five of the SPD’s seven federal ministerial posts would have had to be filled with women; the state secretaries do not belong to the federal government. Scholz failed to achieve this goal. However, he emphasized on Monday that there would be as many women ministers as ministers; it does not count itself for parity.
The cabinet posts of the SPD at a glance:
Work and social affairs: Hubertus Heil. The Lower Saxon remains at his post. In the past four years, as Minister of Labor, he has achieved more than the SPD had stipulated in the coalition agreement. So why should Scholz have replaced the 49-year-old? Especially since he now has to work on two major projects that are important for the SPD with the increase in the minimum wage and the transformation of Hartz IV into a so-called citizen’s money.
Health: Karl Lauterbach. An epidemiologist who has become one of the most sought-after experts among politicians and the most political expert during the Corona crisis – he was right at the top of the list of favorites for the important Ministry of Health. Now he has to prove that he can not only read statistics and issue warnings, but also cope with a crisis as a manager.
Inside: Nancy Faeser. The 51-year-old has been the chairwoman of the state SPD and the local SPD parliamentary group in Hesse for two years. She is an expert on domestic politics, and was also traded as such for posts in federal politics.
Defense: Christine Lambrecht. Two years ago, Lambrecht became Federal Minister of Justice, and for six months she has also been acting as head of the Family Ministry. Both posts now go to the coalition partners of the SPD, the FDP and the Greens. Scholz paid tribute to Lambrecht on Monday as a very experienced politician. She had also been acted as Minister of the Interior in Scholz’s cabinet.
Economical co-operation and Development: Svenja Schulze. Schulze could not remain in her position as Federal Environment Minister; this post in the federal government may in future be occupied by the Greens. The 53-year-old is now switching to the development aid ministry.
Building: Klara Geywitz. The deputy SPD chairwoman was best known throughout Germany when she ran for the SPD chairmanship together with Scholz – without success. The 45-year-old has been active in state politics in Brandenburg so far. Like Scholz, she lives in Potsdam.
Chancellery: Wolfgang Schmidt. The 51-year-old is Olaf Scholz’s closest political confidante, most recently he was his State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance. Like Scholz, Schmidt comes from Hamburg and is a lawyer.
The other items:
In future, the Greens will occupy the Foreign Ministry (Annalena Baerbock), the Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection (Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck), the Family (Anne Spiegel), the Environment (Steffi Lemke) and the Ministry of Agriculture (Cem Özdemir). The FDP provides finance (Christian Lindner), transport (Volker Wissing), justice (Marco Buschmann) and education ministers (Bettina Stark-Watzinger).
At the weekend, the SPD and FDP approved the contract for a new traffic light coalition with clear majorities. The approval of the Greens is still pending. They all have a good 125,000 members who can decide on the contract – until 1 p.m. The result of the vote is to be announced at 2:30 p.m. If the Greens also approve the coalition – and anything else would be a huge surprise – the contract is due to be signed on Tuesday. On Wednesday, Scholz will then be elected Chancellor by the Bundestag.