Heide Simonis was the first woman to rule a federal state. Most recently, the former prime minister lived in seclusion in Kiel. Now she died at home.
The former Schleswig-Holstein Prime Minister Heide Simonis is dead. According to the SPD state chairman Serpil Midyatli, the SPD politician died on Wednesday morning a few days after her 80th birthday at home in Kiel.
On May 19, 1993, Simonis became the first female Prime Minister of a German federal state. She replaced Björn Engholm (SPD), who failed due to the aftermath of the Barschel scandal in 1987. First, Simonis led a one-party SPD government, then from 1996 to 2005 a red-green coalition.
Simonis failed to win re-election
Her political career ended spectacularly: in the prime ministerial election on March 17, 2005, a dissenter refused her vote in four rounds; because of this her re-election in the state parliament failed. Back then, after a close state election, Simonis wanted to continue governing with a red-green minority government – supported by the South Schleswig Voters’ Association (SSW), the party of the Danish minority in Schleswig-Holstein.
After this failed, the then CDU state chairman Peter Harry Carstensen took over the helm in Kiel at the head of a grand coalition with the SPD. In 2014, the then Prime Minister Torsten Albig (SPD) awarded Simonis honorary citizenship.
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Source: Stern
I have been working in the news industry for over 6 years, first as a reporter and now as an editor. I have covered politics extensively, and my work has appeared in major newspapers and online news outlets around the world. In addition to my writing, I also contribute regularly to 24 Hours World.
