Saturday, November 27th, 2021
Losers and winners
Habeck: Who is good and why as a minister
Five ministries are to lead the Greens in the new federal government. The chairman of the Greens, Habeck, explains who is allowed to run why, who is not allowed to do it, and why Cem Özdemir will head the “most German department of all”.
The Greens federal chairman and vice-chancellor-designate Robert Habeck has defended the nomination of Cem Özdemir as the new agriculture minister. Özdemir is “a gifted communicator who knows how to bring different interests together,” said Habeck of the “Neue Osnabrücker Zeitung”. This ability is particularly important in the agriculture department. “Agriculture is an area where different expectations clash very hard.” He knows that from his own experience in Schleswig-Holstein, said Habeck, who was Agriculture Minister there for six years.
In addition, Özdemir is also well suited for the task because “in his political career he has always worked primarily on the reconciliation of economy and ecology”. Both belong “in hardly any other area so closely together” as in agriculture. Özdemir’s nomination is also a figurehead for the entire Green Party: “For the first time, a child of a Turkish immigrant family will be German Federal Minister – and not in an area that is related to migration issues, but in the most German department, if you will.”
Habeck also justified that the two green parliamentary group leaders did not move into the cabinet. “Toni Hofreiter and Katrin Göring-Eckardt did great services and successfully managed the parliamentary group for years,” he said. “But when you have a lot of good people and only a limited number of departments, the selection is always a painful process that sometimes requires difficult decisions.” Hofreiter had previously been acted as Minister of Agriculture, Göring-Eckardt as Minister of the Family.
Habeck said of the other future Green Cabinet positions: “With Steffi Lemke, an East German is joining the cabinet who has profound knowledge of the environment.” The designated Family Minister Anne Spiegel has already proven herself in the same office in Rhineland-Palatinate. And the previous Vice President of the Bundestag, Claudia Roth, will be “a strong voice as Minister of State for Culture” because she has “shaped the cultural scene for many years”. Habeck himself takes over the new ministry for climate protection and economy, co-party leader Annalena Baerbock becomes federal foreign minister.