Verena Bentele, 41, President of the VdK social association, has also been elected head of the Bavarian VdK state association. The previous state chairman of the VdK Bayern, Ulrike Mascher 84, did not stand for re-election. Bentele has been a member of the state board since 2015 and has been VdK President since 2018. In this function, too, she was Mascher’s successor.
The VdK sees itself as a lobby for pensioners, people with disabilities, the chronically ill, those in need of care, families, older workers and the unemployed. According to its own statements, it has around 770,000 members in Bavaria. Its core business consists of advising its members on social law.
Bentele is blind and won numerous gold medals at world championships and the Paralympics as a winter athlete until 2011. In 2011 she completed a master’s degree in modern German literature. Since 2006 she has been working as a freelance coach and speaker. From 2014 to 2018 she was the Federal Government Commissioner for the Disabled.