Thorsten Frei becomes Chancellor’s head: Friedrich Merz’s age ego by Friedrich Merz

In political Berlin, Thorsten Frei cares for his very own style: his friendliness seems almost indestructible. The CDU politician from the Black Forest lacks the gruff that so often shapes the political argument in the federal government these days.

This has not harmed his career: In the new federal government, Thorsten Frei will be one of the most powerful men behind the scenes: Friedrich Merz brings the 51-year-old into his chancellery as the boss-and thus trusts him with the switching point of power.

There is a certain political hardness behind Frei’s meekness. The internal security and the limitation of migration are among the core topics of the inner expert who grew up as the son of a police officer in South Baden.

So far, the Union faction was freely managing director in the Bundestag and thus noiselessly and efficiently acted as a hinge between the CDU party leadership and the parliamentary group.

In this office he developed into one of the closest confidants of the future Chancellor Merz. In the future, the Chancellery – a federal authority with around 700 employees, will be willing as a minister, where the policies of the entire federal government will be controlled and coordinated.

This freely takes over an office with a complex task profile. “In daily work, the Chancellor’s head of the Chancellor proves to be a powerful alter ego of the Federal Chancellor behind the political stage, as a coordinator of diverse government processes and as a problem solver in conflicts between the departments”: Political professor Stephan Bröchler from the University of Economic Affairs and Law describes the duties of a Chancellery Minister.

Thorsten Frei as the “alter ego” by Friedrich Merz: When Merz took over the management of the party and the parliamentary group after years of absence from active politics, freely quickly became his right hand. The desire for more conservative CDU positions after the liberal Merkel years united the two Christian Democrats.

Free is a tough course in security and migration policy. Last year, free also stumbled into their own party when he brought the abolition of individual law to asylum into play – and thus questioned a law that was anchored in the Basic Law.

Critics see him a right -wing sharpener in a bourgeois robe. “Thorsten Frei is a leading Merzian and pacemaker of the conservative turn in the Union,” said left-wing party leader Jan van Aken of the AFP news agency. “With a more restrictive migration policy, a obligation to work for citizen benefit recipients and a clear line of foreclosure, he pursues consistent but highly controversial positions.”

The topic of internal security was almost freely placed in the cradle. His father was temporarily responsible as a police officer in the 1970s for the personal protection of the then general public prosecutor Kurt Rebmann-in the high phase of the left-wing extremist RAF terror. “Attacks on the police, that was attacks on my father for me,” said Frei once of the “time”.

His political craft learned freely in local politics. Already at the beginning of 30 he became the mayor of the Baden-Württemberg city of Donaueschingen. In 2013 he moved to the Bundestag – cuckoo clock and crucifix are reminiscent of home in the Catholic politician’s office. Family man, early riser, McDonald’s fan, dog lover and walker-this is how freely presents himself on his Instagram account.

The eloquent lawyer made himself known to the outside world through television appearances: always styled, freely profiled himself as a kind of chief explanatory of Christian democratic positions – especially in the past few weeks when the U -turn of the CDU also irritated many on its own basis in debt policy. Frei’s public presence is now likely to be lower, because Chancellor Minister is classically act as a string puller in the background – powerful, but discreet.