As of: 10/9/2021 5:39 p.m.
They want to enable a generation change: Minister of Economic Affairs Altmaier and Minister of Defense Kramp-Karrenbauer have surprisingly announced that they will forego their Bundestag mandates.
Federal Minister of Economics Peter Altmaier and Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer are renouncing their parliamentary mandates. This was announced by the two CDU politicians in Saarbrücken. You are clearing the way for Nadine Schön and Markus Uhl, who will join the Bundestag as successors from the CDU state list. The SPD won all four direct mandates in the federal election on September 26th in Saarland.
It is important to bring about a generation change now, said Altmaier. “Renewal is possible, you just have to want it,” he added. Kramp-Karrenbauer said it is not enough to just say that the country and the party are more important than one’s own political career. Now is a situation “where you have to do it”.
Elected to the Bundestag via state list
The former CDU federal chairman Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected to the Bundestag via the top spot on the state list. Altmaier started in second place. By renouncing the mandate, they are making room for two younger party members in the Union parliamentary group.
Nadine Schön is 38 years old and has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009. She helped negotiate when the SPD and CDU agreed in principle on a binding quota for women on executive boards at the end of 2020. Markus Uhl (41) was elected to the Bundestag for the first time in 2017. Before that, the business administration graduate worked in the Saarland State Chancellery from 2012 to 2017, most recently as head of department.
Praise from CDU Prime Minister Hans
The state chairman of the Saarland CDU, Prime Minister Tobias Hans, announced at short notice that he wanted to make a press release “on the situation of the CDU in the state and federal government after the federal election”. Hans praised the two ministers for resigning their mandate. With a view to the ongoing exploratory talks between the SPD, FDP and the Greens to form a traffic light coalition, he said, even if other constellations are conceivable, “the signs are on the traffic lights”. You have to accept that now and take on the role of the opposition.
Peter Altmaier has been a member of the Bundestag since 1994. Kramp-Karrenbauer was Prime Minister of Saarland until she moved to Berlin as CDU General Secretary in 2018. In December 2018, she was elected CDU chairman with a tight result in a vote against the former Union parliamentary group leader Friedrich Merz. In February 2020 she announced her resignation as a consequence of the government crisis in Thuringia. Her successor at the head of the party was NRW Prime Minister Armin Laschet. According to their own statements, Altmaier and Kramp-Karrenbauer will keep their ministerial posts until a new federal government is formed.