Wednesday October 27, 2021
Can Scholz keep promises?
FDP continues to reject quota for women in the cabinet
The FDP is still reluctant to fill the ministerial posts equally in the upcoming traffic light cabinet. However, the designated Chancellor Olaf Scholz made a promise early on. Will the issue still become the crux of the coalition negotiations?
The FDP continues to strictly reject a quota for women and men in government posts in a coalition with the SPD and the Greens. “It is common for each contract partner to make his own personnel decisions,” said FDP General Secretary Volker Wissing to the newspapers of the Funke media group.
SPD Chancellor candidate Olaf Scholz, however, had always emphasized that the equal representation of a future government under his leadership should not only apply to the SPD ministers. On Twitter he even promised that his cabinet would be “at least half of the women”.
“Equality is important to us, too, but I don’t think much of one party making the other personnel requirements at the negotiating table,” said Wissing. “That has never worked in a coalition.” Other top Liberal politicians have already emphasized in the past that a rigid quota system is out of the question from the FDP’s point of view. Above all, it should depend on the qualification to lead a ministry.
With the Greens, however, quotas have a long tradition. A regulation for the representation of other genders in ministerial posts has not yet been discussed. In company job advertisements, for example, it is now common that applications from male, female and various interested parties are desired.