After four legislative periods in the German Bundestag, he no longer wants to. Hamburg SPD MP and Parliamentary State Secretary Niels Annen will not run in the 2025 election.
Niels Annen, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and long-time Hamburg SPD MP, will not be running in the next federal election. In a letter to the SPD district chairman of Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, Milan Pein, the 51-year-old wrote on Sunday: “I am writing to you today because I have decided not to run for the German Bundestag in 2025.” It is important to him to inform people of his decision now so that there is enough time to find a successor, says the letter, which is available to the German Press Agency. Several media outlets had previously reported on the matter.
He will miss working as a member of the Bundestag very much, but perhaps that is precisely why this is the right time for such a decision. “I am looking forward to using my qualifications in a completely different way,” wrote Annen, without going into detail about his plans. The Hamburg native has been a member of the German Bundestag continuously since 2013. From 2018 to 2021 he was Minister of State in the Foreign Office before moving to Federal Development Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) as Parliamentary State Secretary.
Niels Annen was already a member of the Bundestag in 2005
The former Federal Chairman of the Jusos (2001 to 2004) also sat in the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009 – and would have liked to continue, but was surprisingly unsuccessful in the 2008 candidate selection process. Hamburg Juso leader Danial Ilkhanipour beat Annen by exactly one vote. His candidacy was highly controversial. Critics accused Ilkhanipour of only announcing it after he had installed enough party friends as delegates for the constituency conference. Because of the dispute, the then SPD district chairman Jan Pörksen resigned on election day. Ilkhanipour ultimately failed in the Bundestag election.
Turning point in parliament
From the Green Party to the Kosovo War to the traffic light coalition: 40 years ago the Greens entered the Bundestag
“The dispute over my re-election in 2008 hurt me, and in the end the argument was not good for anyone,” Annen wrote to Pein. But it was a great experience to have been given a second chance four years later. “That is not a given in politics.”
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.
