Four weeks after the Bavarian state elections and two weeks after the Free Voters awarded their positions, Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU) presented his party’s new cabinet members this Wednesday. All ministers and state secretaries will be sworn in at a special session of the state parliament at 1 p.m. The staff tableau will contain many well-known names. The changes in the new legislative period are manageable.
After Klaus Holetschek took over as chairman of the CSU state parliamentary group, there is a change at the top of the Ministry of Health. According to SZ information, the new minister will be Judith Gerlach, the previous digital minister. The Swabian state parliament member Eric Beißwenger will take over the European Ministry; The previous incumbent, Melanie Huml, is reportedly leaving the cabinet. Martin Schöffel, a member of the state parliament from Upper Franconia, will be State Secretary in the Ministry of Finance.
During the state election campaign, CSU party leader Söder had already given the following cabinet members a job guarantee: State Chancellor Florian Herrmann, Finance Minister Albert Füracker, Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, Construction Minister Christian Bernreiter, Science Minister Markus Blume, Agriculture Minister Michaela Kaniber and Social Affairs Minister Ulrike Scharf. Justice Minister Georg Eisenreich, who, despite his trusting relationship with Söder, was considered a shaky candidate because, like Blume, comes from the CSU district association in Munich, will now remain in office.
As of Wednesday morning, nothing had become known about their personal details – Söder had urged the small circle of those involved and those in the know to maintain strict confidentiality. Söder apparently refrains from making surprising personnel decisions. This could have affected the CSU Bundestag member Emmi Zeulner, who until recently was responsible for the health department. Söder takes into account the regional proportional representation, which is traditionally important in the CSU, by moving Upper Franconian Schöffel into the cabinet to replace Upper Franconian Huml.
On the Free Voters side, Hubert Aiwanger (Economy) and Thorsten Glauber (Environment) remain in the cabinet. Instead of Michael Piazolo, his previous State Secretary Anna Stolz will lead the Ministry of Culture, and the previous Parliamentary Managing Director of the FW parliamentary group, Fabian Mehring, will take over the digital department. Tobias Gotthardt will be the new Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, replacing Roland Weigert.
Prime Minister Söder initially announced the CSU personnel list on Wednesday morning at an internal meeting of the CSU parliamentary group in the state parliament. In the afternoon, after being sworn in in the state parliament, the members of the new state government will receive their certificates of appointment in the Munich Residence.