Since Andrea Nahles resigned on Sunday, the name of Malu Dreyer haunted Berlin as a possible successor to the top of the SPD.
A brief portrait.
Berlin - Malu Dreyer could become the savior of the SPD lying on the ground.
The popular politician is to follow Andrea Nahles as party leader - at least temporarily, rumors in the capital.
Who is the 58-year-old hope for the party?
A brief portrait.
The lawyer has been shaping politics in Rhineland-Palatinate since 2002.
She had been Minister of Social Affairs and Labor in Kurt Beck's cabinet since 2002.
In 2013 she was then Prime Minister and re-elected in the 2013 state elections.
Despite the national political crisis of the SPD, it was even able to slightly increase the party's share of the vote.
With her as the top candidate, the SPD came in at 36.2 percent - a result that one in Berlin's Willy Brandt House does not even dare to dream of at the moment.
Since then, Malu Dreyer has governed in a traffic light coalition with the FDP and the Greens.
Malu Dreyer as the savior of the SPD?
None of them are as popular in the party as they are
Since this election success at the latest, the popular state politician Dreyer has also gained more and more importance for the party as a whole.
At the SPD party conference in December 2017, she was elected as one of the deputy federal chairpersons.
With an absolute dream result: 97.5% of the delegates voted for them.
None of the other five candidates came anywhere near it.
Even then, not a few in the party wanted Dreyer to run for the SPD chairmanship instead of Nahles.
SPD quake:
Nahles withdraws completely from politics - who will follow?
Malu Dreyer (SPD) has multiple sclerosis and needs a wheelchair
If it weren't for this insidious disease.
Dreyer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995.
It is increasingly difficult for her to walk, and she has to rely on a wheelchair for longer distances.
She was also supported on Sunday after she appeared in front of the press to make a statement.
Can Dreyer accept the physical strain that the office of SPD chairman would mean?
In an interview with Die Zeit, she spoke openly about her MS illness: “My head doesn't think about my legs.
Sometimes I see someone and want to approach them spontaneously and only notice a second later: I can't do it as quickly as I want. "She has now accepted that she is sometimes dependent on a wheelchair:" I thought, I'll sit in there and I'll never get out again.
Then it was completely different: I felt that the wheelchair gave me freedom again ”, Dreyer remembers the first experiences with a wheelchair.
So far, she has always weighed down national political ambitions.
Even after her election victory in 2016. The question was "absurd".
Because of her illness?
Malu Dreyer (SPD): A steep career after studying law
Malu Dreyer, whose real name is Maria Luise Anna Dreyer, first studied Catholic theology and English.
Then she switched to law.
She was a probationary judge, public prosecutor, full-time mayor of Bad Kreuznach, department head in Mainz and finally state minister.
A steep career.
Dreyer's husband brought three children into the relationship
Dreyer's husband Klaus Jensen is also a social democrat and was even Lord Mayor of Trier from 2007 to 2015.
Dreyer himself had no children, but her husband brought two sons and a daughter into the relationship after his first wife's death from cancer.
She married Jensen in July 2004.
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Malu Dreyer with her husband Klaus Jensen.
© picture alliance / dpa / Andreas Arnold
Also read:
Ticker on the SPD crisis after Nahles' resignation and the European election disaster
Malu Dreyer (SPD) is an avowed Catholic - and Klopp admirer
Dreyer is an avowed Catholic.
In an interview with the gala she said: “My Christian faith is a foundation in me.
Values such as charity or mercy towards people who do not have it easy in life are cornerstones of faith, and these are important pillars in my political action. "
Dreyer is also a football fan.
Her heart beats not only for the Rhineland-Palatinate clubs Mainz 05 and Kaiserslautern, but also for BVB.
Although that had more to do with Klopp.
“It all started with Klopp back then.
I've been following the English league since he's been in Liverpool.
I'm a secret Klopp fan, ”she admitted at the gala.
Klopp won the Champions League on Saturday.
Will Dreyer soon be able to lead the SPD to new successes again?
The Prime Minister seems to be the comrades' last hope.
The ntv reporter Heike Boese even spoke of a “gift from heaven” for the SPD.
After the resignation of Andrea Nahles, the SPD is initially without leadership.
The party executive meets on Monday morning to discuss how to proceed.
Meanwhile, Oscar Lafontaine presented his old party with a proposal that had little to do with this search.
He promotes the idea that the SPD and the left could merge.
Andrea Nahles has officially resigned as chairwoman of the SPD.
A trio should now take over for the time being.
All information about the Nahles withdrawal in the news ticker.
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