Designated SPD Minister
Nancy Faeser: Germany’s first Federal Interior Minister in brief
Nancy Faeser at her introduction as future Minister of the Interior in Berlin
© Michael Kappeler / Picture Alliance
Olaf Scholz has announced his cabinet, and Nancy Faeser will be Minister of the Interior. The 53-year-old is currently still an opposition leader in the Hessian state parliament.
Nancy Faeser is said to be the first woman to head the Federal Ministry of the Interior. The SPD politician wants to put her focus in office on the fight against right-wing extremism. When introducing the future ministers from the ranks of the SPD, she said: “It will be of particular concern to me to combat right-wing extremism, the greatest threat that our free and democratic basic order currently poses.”
The people in Germany rightly have the right to demand that the federal government take care of their safety, she added. This requires well-trained, well-equipped staff, especially in the federal police.
Nancy Faeser is probably still unknown to many Germans. The 51-year-old fully qualified lawyer is currently still the parliamentary group and state chairman of the Hessian SPD and as such an opposition leader in the Hessian state parliament. In the Hessian state parliament, Faeser has earned the reputation of a sharp-tongued speaker with the gift of sharpening and profiling her arguments in the political debate. Actually, she has so far been considered the upcoming top candidate for the state election in 2023. Faeser has been a member of the SPD since 1988, and has been a member of the Hessian state parliament since 2003. Since 2019 she has been the state chairwoman of the SPD Hessen. According to her parliamentary profile, she works as an independent lawyer in addition to her mandate. Faeser is married and has a four year old son.
Nancy Faeser takes over from Horst Seehofer
Nancy Faeser was, among other things, chairwoman of the committee of inquiry into the NSU murders and chairs the so-called G10 commission, which is subject to all postal and telecommunications surveillance measures in Hesse.
According to her own information, her topics include relieving the Hessian police, free day-care centers, relieving the Hessian municipalities through debt relief, the full investigation and processing of the crimes of the NSU in Hesse, affordable housing for the Main-Taunus district, through targeted funding in the Urban development, an expansion of the broadband network and other funding programs for digital expansion.
Faeser replaces the CSU politician Horst Seehofer at the head of the Interior Ministry.
Sources: DPA, SPD I, SPD II, State Parliament of Hesse