Federal government
The Merz cabinet: bigger, older, male
The new cabinet will have more heads than last. The proportion of women, on the other hand, drops. Almost all items are filled, only one face from traffic lights is preserved.
The new cabinet brings more than just fresh faces. The Federal Government under Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) will start with more members and a new ministry – but will also be older than last.
New government is larger than before
The Federal Government grows from 17 to 18 members through the newly created Federal Ministry of Digitization and State Modernization. In addition, some houses are restructured. For example, the former Ministry of Education and Research is divided and expanded. Karin Prien (CDU) is now responsible for education and family, Dorothee Bär (CSU) for research and space travel. The topic of climate protection is moving from the Ministry of Economic Affairs, which led in the traffic light government Robert Habeck (Greens), to the Ministry of Environment of Carsten Schneider (SPD).
Many new faces at the cabinet table
Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) is the only one who can stay. All other SPD politicians from the elected traffic light have not got any items under black and red. He has at least one other colleague with Federal Minister experience: Between 2013 and 2017, the new Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) led the traffic department under CDU Chancellor Angela Merkel. All other houses have new people at the top.
At the age of 69, Friedrich Merz was the senior in his cabinet. The average age of the federal government is 53.1 years – and thus almost three years above that of the traffic light government when taking office (50.4 years). The Union team is an average of 55.5 years old, that of the Social Democrats only 49.4 years. The youngest in the cabinet are Development Minister Reem Alabali-Radovan (35, SPD) and Federal Minister of Building Verena Hubertz (37, SPD), the oldest are Pistorius (65, SPD) and Foreign Minister Johann WadePhul (62, CDU).
Even the outgoing Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) had not managed to fill his government half with women. There were eight among his 17 cabinet members. But under Merz, her share will decrease again: he too has eight women in his ranks, but the cabinet now counts 18 heads. With four ministers, the SPD occupies the majority of their seven departments with women, but of the eleven cabinet members of the Union are only four female.
From the East Federal States three to positions
Three of the 18 cabinet members grew up in East Germany, which roughly corresponds to the proportion of East Germans in the German residential population. In the traffic light government, Erfurt’s Carsten Schneider (SPD) was a representative for East Germany, now he becomes Federal Environment Minister. The Alabali-Radovan (SPD), who grew up in Schwerin, fled with her family at the age of six because of the political conditions from Iraq to Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Federal Minister of Economics Katherina Reiche (CDU) grew up in Brandenburg and most recently was CEO of Westenergie AG based in North Rhine-Westphalia.
dpa
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.
