Tuesday, November 30th, 2021
These are his state secretaries
Habeck assigns the first important posts
As state secretaries, they will be the top officials in Robert Habeck’s super ministry: Anja Hajduk, Sven Giegold, Patrick Graichen and Udo Philipp are experts in climate and financial issues. And there is also movement in the Green parliamentary group: Katharina Dröge wants to become the new chairwoman.
The designated Economics and Climate Minister Robert Habeck ordered his house before the Greens voted on the coalition agreement with the SPD and FDP. The co-head of the Greens is bringing political heavyweights into the future ministry as state secretaries. The head of office and coordinator of the Vice Chancellor will be the experienced budget politician and former Hamburg Senator for the Environment, Anja Hajduk, as a Green spokeswoman confirmed. The European politician and Attac co-founder Sven Giegold, Patrick Graichen from the Agora Energiewende think tank and the State Secretary for Finance in Schleswig-Holstein, Udo Philipp, are to become further permanent state secretaries.
As State Secretary Hajduk is to coordinate the cooperation with other ministries. She is a proven finance and budget expert and was most recently responsible for the budget of the Ministry of Economic Affairs in the budget committee of the Bundestag. She should benefit from the experience as a housekeeper: The Habeck Ministry is considered a key department for the restructuring of the economy towards climate neutrality. Disputes with the future finance minister Christian Lindner about money for investments are likely.
She is considered a pragmatist
Hajduk brings a lot of experience to the government business, according to the “Spiegel” in Habeck’s environment. The 58-year-old is considered a pragmatist: As Hamburg Senator, in 2008 she approved the construction of a new hard coal-fired power plant in Hamburg-Moorburg, which the Greens had previously rejected as a “climate monster”. Hajduk was legally compelled to grant approval, but provided this with requirements under water law.
In the federal election in 2021, the former party leader of the Hamburg green alternatives list no longer stood. She was a member of the Bundestag from 2002 to 2008 and from 2013 to 2021. In between she was Senator for Urban Development and the Environment in the first black-green coalition at state level under Hamburg’s Mayor Ole von Beust.
According to Agora Energiewende, Graichen is to coordinate the implementation of climate and energy policy in the Habeck Ministry. He co-founded Agora Energiewende in 2012 and has been Executive Director and Managing Director of the think tank with a focus on energy and climate protection since 2014. He previously worked in the Federal Environment Ministry.
Dröge wants to lead the Green Group
Meanwhile, there is also movement in the reorganization of the Green parliamentary group. The economic politician Katharina Dröge announced that she would run for the dual leadership of the parliamentary group. Dröge belongs to the party left. “I would like to take responsibility for the time that lies ahead of us,” she wrote in a letter of application to the Green MPs. “We can only be successful as a team. And I would like to lead this team for the next few years as one of two group chairmen.” Dröge was, among other things, a member of the parliamentary group executive and parliamentary manager in the Green parliamentary group.
The Greens want to decide on the new parliamentary group and the composition of committees in the coming week. The previous group chairmen Katrin Göring-Eckardt and Anton Hofreiter no longer want to run.