Julia Klöckner becomes President of the Bundestag: her career and scandals

At least protocol, Julia Klöckner will soon be number two in the Federal Republic – behind the Federal President and even before the Chancellor. The Union faction nominated her as the new Bundestag president, the choice is actually only a matter of form. Klöckner then takes over a representative office in which she should ensure good behavior and compensation in parliament. Especially with a clearly grown AfD faction, this moderating role can be a challenge.

“If we don’t discuss with respect and argue properly here, how should it happen in the width of society?” Said the 52-year-old after her nomination. But the CDU politician herself is not undisputed and has done some slips in the past.

Klöckner, born in 1972, comes from a family of winegrowers in Rhineland-Palatinate. The love of wine cultivation shaped her career during and after studying (theology and political science in Mainz): in 1995 she was elected German wine queen and on a volunteer German winery. After the university, she worked temporarily freelance for the public service broadcaster SWR.

After that, however, she also turned to her passion for wine professionally. Klöckner started in Neustadt an der Weinstraße at Meininger Verlag, which specializes in wine and drink publications. There she worked up to the editor-in-chief and headed the editorial team of the “sommelier magazine” before moving to professional policy. Even today, she likes to serve visitors in her Bundestag office a glass of wine.

Klöckner joined the CDU at the age of 25, at that time still as a student. Here, too, she made a quick climb – but also thanks to the women’s quota in the Union. In 2002 she secured sixth place on the state list in Rhineland-Palatinate and thus moving into the Bundestag. There, Klöckner is particularly committed to consumer protection, nutrition and agriculture, and organ donation is also one of her heart’s topics. Consequently, she was appointed State Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture in 2009.

In 2011 Julia Klöckner moved back home, in Rhineland-Palatinate she started for the office of prime minister. However, she briefly defeated the incumbent Kurt Beck (SPD). Even in the second attempt five years later, the CDU top candidate did not work with the election victory. This time she lost to Beck’s successor Malu Dreyer.

However, these two defeats did not detract from Klöckner’s career – on the contrary. Angela Merkel brought her back to Berlin and turned her to Minister of Agriculture. Klöckner filled the office in Merkel’s last legislative period. Among other things, Klöckner made a attempt for an animal welfare logo for meat in the supermarket, which was not finished. However, it implemented the introduction of the nutri-value logo Nutri-Score on the German market and incited voluntary self-commitments to the economy.

But the Palatinate did not always present a sure -ster on the political parquet. In particular, in which Klöckner praised the food group Nestlé for the reduced sugar, salt and fat content of his food, she continues to date. Politicians, the media and consumer advocates accused her of advertising a – also controversial company – as a minister. It also turned out that Nestlé’s information did not always meet the truth.

There was also criticism when the minister in the media together with celebrity chef Johann Lafer. It should be good and cheap, but then it came out that cheap meat was used for the meal.

Again and again Klöckner noticed with questionable statements that did not stand up for a review. He accused her of “dishonesty as a thread of a career”. Klöckner posted an article on dentist costs that would allegedly cause by asylum seekers. The numbers can still be called up to this day. The SPD parliamentary group also accused the CDU politician in a different context of putting “massive false allegations into the world” on education policy. The “taz” reported a statement on pesticide policy during her time as Minister of Agriculture.

Before the latest Bundestag election, Klöckner finally entered a snap bar in the election campaign. “You don’t have to choose AfD for what you want. There is a democratic alternative for that: the CDU,” she posted on Instagram. The contribution even caused irritation in its own party, after all, the Union repeatedly emphasizes its demarcation to partly right -wing radical AfD. Klöckner deleted the post and complained that it had been instrumentalized by “left -wing groups”.

For Klöckner, consequences had a rather small faux pas in the federal presidential election. As secretary, she was involved in the count and tweeted the choice of Horst Köhler even before the result was officially announced. Klöckner apologized, after which she waived the office of secretary. As President of the Bundestag, such mistakes should no longer happen to her.