mirror successor
Lisa Paus – a down-to-earth walker becomes the new family minister
Lisa Paus has been a single mother to a son since her husband died of cancer in 2013
© Annette Riedl / DPA
Anne Spiegel’s resignation leaves a hole in the government cabinet. Lisa Paus, 53 years old, is to fill this and become the new Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth.
The new one can really dish out. A few weeks ago in the Bundestag, when it came to the budget of the traffic light coalition, she hurled at the CDU and CSU parliamentary group: “We abide by the laws of mathematics!” On the other hand, what Friedrich Merz’s troops are doing in the opposition is evidence of a lack of governance. “That’s voodoo! That’s dubious.”
The fact that bourgeois-conservative politicians have to be accused of a lack of seriousness by a Green Party is something that has happened more often, but it is always refreshing to see it.
So the new one: Lisa Paus, 53 years old, daughter of a machine manufacturer from Emsland, mother of a son, single parent since her husband died of cancer in 2013 – she will be the new “Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth” and thus the successor to the end Personally and politically, her predecessor Anne Spiegel collapsed. She knows private strokes of fate, and the hardships of single parents too – so not bad prerequisites for the new office, which is also about empathy for the people who have embarked on the family adventure.
Lisa Paus has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009
Paus is largely unknown on the big stage – but a seasoned politician. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009, most recently as deputy parliamentary leader of the Greens, and she has made a name for herself among experts in an area that used to be firmly in the hands of men: financial policy. As a graduate economist, she has mastered the technicalities. But she can also – see above – extend her elbows. This applies not only to political opponents, but also internally. In the race for the top candidate of the Berlin Greens for the 2017 federal election, she ousted the quite popular inner-party competitor Bettina Jarasch by vote.
No political romantic enters the stage of big politics now, also no green culture fighter, rather the type: Wegmacherin. But politically, she leaves no room for doubt, her position is clear: on the left. For years, Paus has been fighting vehemently against tax evasion and tax havens and for “basic child security”.
Family policy is a complex structure and meanwhile much more than what a certain Gerhard Schröder once called “Gedöns” as chancellor. Probably nowhere else does politics come as close to people as when it comes to family, where daycare places and parental leave, gender equality and feminism, old role models and new models of living together are at stake. This can be mined terrain. But it can also be a very down-to-earth political field, where you are not in bad hands as a financial politician. Because in the end, especially for people who do not belong to the upper classes, family policy is often about one thing above all else: money.
“A seasoned politician who has mastered the craft”
It was Paus who internally pushed through the concept of basic family security among the Greens, which some influential Greens initially thought could hardly be financed. The trained budget politician showed how it could work – and in the end had the majority on her side. The fight for money could become even more important for the new family minister in the near future. That is when the consequences of the Ukraine war become noticeable, especially for families with low incomes: at the gas pump, at the supermarket checkout, on the electricity or gas bill. Christian Lindner can already look forward to extensive talks with the economist Paus, who is knowledgeable about figures and who is likely to pull out all the stops in the fight for the budget for her department.
Exactly that – experience and solid craftsmanship – were decisive for the occupation. “She’s just an Emslander,” says Jürgen Trittin, old warhorse of the Greens and still an important internal string puller, who should also have had a say in this personality. Trittin himself is from Bremen, the Emsland is not far from there, so he knows the Emslanders well. He describes her character traits roughly like this: down to earth, no big sayings, want to work something out properly.
“I’m happy for Lisa,” says Trittin. “She is a seasoned politician who has mastered the trade and is steeled in federal politics. You can see from this personnel decision that this ministry is not just ‘junk’ for us, but a tough department.”