The replacement in the German Ministry of Defense of a woman by a man on Tuesday January 17 signed the end of parity within the government, arousing criticism even within the coalition.
Olaf Scholz had formed a joint team of 16 ministers in December 2021, a first in Germany whose chancellor, who claims to be a feminist, said to himself “particularly proud“.
“Extremely important” parity composition
But the replacement of the Social Democrat Christine Lambrecht, weakened by blunders, by Boris Pistorius, a little-known regional elected official, puts an end to this balance. A development that goes wrong, including among environmentalists members of the ruling coalition.
“We believe that in 2023, a government should be composed of parity“, thus regretted Katharina Dröge, leader of the parliamentary group of the Greens in the Bundestag. For environmentalists,an equal composition of the cabinet is extremely important“, she hammered.
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Ecologists also have three women ministers, against two men. “We Greens will always make our contribution to parity, including in governmentadded Omid Nouripour, co-leader of the party with Ricarda Lang. Within the SPD, party of Mr. Scholz and the new minister, voices had also been raised in recent hours, before the announcement of the successor to Chirstine Lambrecht, to demand the maintenance of parity.
“A society made up of more than 50% women must also be reflected in governmentargued the chair of the Social Democratic Women’s Working Group, Maria Noichl, in the Rheinische Post. “The Fifty-fifty must continue to apply. This is what the SPD stands for“.
“Apparently, as the Tories demanded, the positions were allocated based on questionable qualifications and not gender“, for his part regretted Heidi Reichinnek, far left MP, deploring that Olaf Scholz does so”his farewell to his electoral promise of a joint cabinet“.
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