The Seibert era ended with the Merkel era.
The government spokesman will be retired.
It is also speculated that he is going back to his roots: journalism.
Berlin - For eleven years he was the press face of the federal government: together with Angela Merkel, government spokesman Steffen Seibert is leaving the Chancellery.
Since 2010 he has presented the federal government at press conferences and appointments and kept Merkel's back free.
But what will happen to the 61-year-old?
Merkel spokesman Seibert has ace up his sleeve - is he sure of returning to ZDF?
The end of her career hardly means Merkel's farewell: As
Spiegel
reports, the former journalist still has an ace up his sleeve.
Instead of terminating his employment contract with ZDF when he switched to the federal government, Seibert just let him rest and agreed a right of return.
This procedure was "good practice," said the government spokesman for the newspaper.
It is rightly conceivable that Seibert will return to public service broadcasting after his time as press spokesman.
Seibert has a long past there: after completing his traineeship at ZDF in 1989, he worked his way through various programs, including “hallo Deutschland”, the “heute” news and the “heute-journal”.
After twenty years, the award-winning moderator then switched to politics.
ZDF, BR and Co. in the criticism: Merkel spokesman in journalism
There are also role models for a return to journalism in the industry: Seibert's predecessor Ulrich Wilhelm was elected director of Bayerischer Rundfunk after five years at Merkel's side.
At the beginning of 2021 he was replaced by Katja Wildermuth.
But Wilhelm's move to the media was hotly debated and criticized.
Critics questioned whether the objective reporting on the political events was still given, while Wilhelm, as director, did not assume any editorial responsibility.
This debate could flare up again at Seibert too.
But even without a return to ZDF, his agreement with the company sparked debates about the political independence of public broadcasters.
But Seibert may also choose to go into business like some of his operations or enjoy his early retirement.
(sf)