Roland Koch is the new chairman of the Ludwig Erhard Foundation

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Roland Koch: "Coming back into calm waters"

Photo: A3602 Frank Rumpenhorst / dpa

The former Hessian Prime Minister Roland Koch (CDU) has been elected as the new chairman of the Ludwig Erhard Foundation.

The foundation announced in Bonn.

Koch succeeds the journalist Roland Tichy, who has come under fire in connection with misogynistic statements.

Tichy had not stood for election again.

After his election, Koch emphasized that the Ludwig Erhard Foundation had to "get back into calm waters".

The new board is younger and more female than ever.

The aim of the foundation remains to be a respected voice of the supporters of the social market economy in Germany and beyond - also and especially in the Corona crisis.

In these months it is "taken for granted, actually as gratifying, that we are subject to ever more stringent regulation and ever stronger state influence," said Koch.

"Some things are currently unavoidable, but cannot be the future of our country."

The father of the German economic miracle, the former Minister of Economic Affairs and Chancellor Ludwig Erhard (CDU), founded the foundation in 1967. It was intended to promote and support the idea of ​​the social market economy through events, among other things.

Tichy was criticized because of a misogynistic article in his right-wing conservative online portal "Tichy's Insight".

A misogynistic contribution about the SPD politician Sawsan Chebli had caused widespread outrage.

Among other things, Digital State Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU) terminated her membership in the foundation because of this.

In the announcement from Friday it was said that Tichy had resigned from the foundation's board as scheduled.

Koch was Prime Minister of Hesse from 1999 to 2010.

He then worked, among other things, as CEO of the service and construction group Bilfinger and as a member of the supervisory board of the communications group Vodafone Germany.

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asa / AFP / dpa