Tuesday, December 7th, 2021
One day before the traffic lights start
Greens and FDP elect new parliamentary group leaders
Both the Green parliamentary group in the Bundestag and the FDP have a new head. While top positions in the Greens, Katharina Dröge and Britta Haßelmann, will be held by women in the future, the previous FDP parliamentary group leader, Lindner, will be followed by a finance and budget expert in Christian Dürr.
One day before the Ampel coalition took over government, the parliamentary group of the FDP and the Greens elected new chairmen. The FDP parliamentary group has elected the Lower Saxony financial expert Christian Dürr as its new chairman and the parliamentary group of the Greens will in future be led by two women, Katharina Dröge and Britta Haßelmann.
The 44-year-old Dürr replaced the previous parliamentary group leader Christian Lindner, who is to be appointed Federal Minister of Finance on Wednesday. According to information from parliamentary groups, Dürr received 94.44 percent of the vote. He had been suggested by Lindner.
Dürr moved into the Bundestag for the constituency of Delmenhorst-Oldenburg-Land in 2017 and immediately took over the post of deputy parliamentary group chairman. Previously, he was parliamentary group leader of the FDP in the Lower Saxony state parliament. The graduate economist is considered a distinguished finance and budget expert. In the negotiations with the SPD and the Greens about the formation of a traffic light coalition, Dürr was the FDP’s negotiator in the finance working group.
“Congenial addition to Christian Lindner”
Dürr enjoys a great reputation in the parliamentary group, he is considered a confidante of Lindner. Deputy parliamentary group leader Alexander Graf Lambsdorff told the AFP news agency that he was convinced that Dürr would “be a perfect addition to Christian Lindner as finance minister in the parliamentary group”. The parliamentary group has a key role to play: “It will be crucial that the parliamentary group, party and government on the one hand present a cohesive picture, but on the other hand also constantly develop new ideas on how Germany can move forward again as a country.”
The 39-year-old Vice-FDP leader Johannes Vogel is to become the new parliamentary director of the FDP parliamentary group. The fact that the parliamentary group had to be replaced was necessary because Lindner was moving to the position of Federal Minister of Finance and the previous Parliamentary Secretary Marco Buschmann was to become Federal Minister of Justice.
The Greens parliamentary group has elected a new dual leadership. The economic expert Katharina Dröge and the previous First Parliamentary Managing Director Britta Haßelmann were elected as new chairmen, as was known from parliamentary groups. Dröge belongs to the left wing of the Greens, Haßelmann to the Realos. According to internal rules, at least one of the two top positions must be filled by a woman – female dual positions are also possible.
The previous parliamentary group leaders Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Anton Hofreiter were no longer available for election. Hofreiter is under discussion as chairman of the European Committee, Göring-Eckardt is to become Bundestag Vice-President. The previous Greens Vice-President Claudia Roth will become Minister of State for Culture and Media in the new traffic light government.