Successor to Anne Spiegel
Lisa Paus sworn in as the new Federal Minister for Family Affairs
Lisa Paus (Greens) is now officially the new Federal Minister for Family Affairs. Photo: Wolfgang Kumm/dpa
© dpa-infocom GmbH
“I really want to make a difference,” says the new family minister at the official start of the office. Among her priorities she counts the commitment to social justice and the fight against child poverty.
The new Federal Minister for Family Affairs, Lisa Paus, took her oath of office in the Bundestag. The Greens politician officially took up her new position in the cabinet of Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) on Wednesday.
Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier had already presented her with the certificate of appointment on Monday and dismissed her predecessor and party colleague Anne Spiegel from office.
Shortly before Easter, after only a few months in office, Spiegel announced her resignation as Federal Minister for Family Affairs. She had stumbled over her behavior as Rhineland-Palatinate Environment Minister during the flood disaster in the Ahr Valley in July 2021 with 134 fatalities. Among other things, outrage was caused by the fact that around ten days after the flood Spiegel had left for a four-week family vacation in France. Only shortly before her resignation did she comment on this and justified the vacation with a large family burden.
Basic child security first project
Her successor Paus thanked Spiegel for her commitment and explained that she was taking up her new post “with great joy” and “full of respect”. “I really want to make a difference,” said Paus after she was sworn in. She now wants to push ahead with the basic child security project “with full commitment” and stand up for social justice.
“We will not accept the poverty in this country,” said the new minister. She wanted to “finally protect children effectively from poverty”. Support should benefit all families, regardless of whether parents are married or not, she explained. She also wants to address the problems of older people, such as loneliness, said Paus. Other priorities of her term of office are gender equality and support for single parents. Paus has been a single mother of a son for years.
The 53-year-old Paus has many years of experience in financial and economic policy, but is also considered one of the leading minds behind the green concept for a so-called basic child security.
Paus originally comes from Rheine in North Rhine-Westphalia, but has lived in Berlin for a long time, where she is also active in the traditionally left-wing Greens state association. She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009. Before that, she was a member of the Berlin House of Representatives for ten years. In 2017 and 2021 she was the top candidate of the Berlin Greens for the federal elections.