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Chancellor Scholz (2nd from left), Finance Minister Lindner (left), Economics Minister Habeck (right, next to Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock): Mostly men in the economic power center of the republic
Photo: FABRIZIO BENSCH / REUTERS
Olaf Scholz is to be elected Chancellor in the Bundestag on Wednesday.
The members of his cabinet have already been determined - both the ministers and their state secretaries.
In the traffic light coalition of the SPD, FDP and the Greens, the different heads also have different ideas about economic policy: An overview of what entrepreneurs can expect from the new political players.
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Chancellor: Olaf Scholz
Photo: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / AFP
Federal Chancellor: Olaf Scholz (SPD), 63
Education
: Olaf Scholz studied law at the University of Hamburg.
Then he did his community service.
Until his election to the Bundestag in 1998, he was a specialist lawyer for labor law.
Political career
: Scholz has been an integral part of German politics for more than 20 years. Since 2018 he has been Vice Chancellor and Federal Minister of Finance. Previously, he headed the Ministry of Labor in the Merkel cabinet. In Hamburg he was initially the Senator for the Interior and first mayor, where he promoted housing construction. During his tenure as mayor, however, the cum-ex scandal surrounding the Hamburg Warburg Bank also fell. The affair weighs on Scholz to this day.
Biggest flop:
The most serious mistake in his tenure as finance minister was the failure of the financial supervisory authority in the multi-billion Wirecard financial scandal. The result: damage of around 30 billion euros.
Greatest success
: he managed to win the federal election with the SPD and to create an alliance of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. Hardly anyone would have thought an SPD chancellor to be possible at the time of his candidacy.
What can be expected of him for the restructuring of the economy:
Scholz takes over the crisis management from Angela Merkel.
He starts his office in the middle of the fourth corona wave.
In contrast to his predecessors, he cannot allow himself a grace period of 100 days.
The SPD politician already has crisis experience: During the financial crisis from 2008 onwards, as Minister of Labor, Scholz ensured that many jobs were secured through short-time work benefits.
Now he has to break the fourth corona wave without harming the economy too much.
In addition, Scholz wants to fight for the completion of the European banking union, among other things.
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Head of the Chancellery: Wolfgang Schmidt
Photo: HANNIBAL HANSCHKE / REUTERS
Chancellery Minister: Wolfgang Schmidt (SPD), 51
Education
: Like Scholz, the future Minister of the Chancellery is also a lawyer.
He then became Scholz's personal advisor.
Political experience
: Schmidt first became politically active as Scholz's office manager in Berlin, later as a state councilor in Hamburg's Senate and preparer of the G-20 summit.
Most recently he was State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Finance.
Up until now, Schmidt tended to work in the background.
His new office is a stepping stone: the incumbent Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier once worked as head of the Chancellery for SPD Chancellor Gerhard Schröder.
What can be expected of him for the restructuring of the economy:
Schmidt is the helping hand and the closest political confidante of the Chancellor.
He has the difficult task of bringing together different interests from the finance and economics ministries.
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Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection: Robert Habeck
Photo: Jens Büttner / picture alliance / dpa
Vice Chancellor, Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Protection: Robert Habeck (Greens), 52
Education
: Robert Habeck studied philosophy, German and philology in Freiburg.
He initially worked as a freelance writer and published several books with his wife Andrea Paluch.
Political experience
: As Agriculture and Energy Minister in Schleswig-Holstein, Habeck gained experience in managing an authority. In addition, he was parliamentary group leader of the Greens in the state parliament. Most recently he held office with Annalena Baerbock in the federal chairmanship of the Greens.
Greatest success
: In the race for the Greens' candidacy for chancellor, Habeck was unable to prevail: after the negotiations of the traffic light coalition, he is now vice chancellor and at the same time head of a newly created "super ministry" for economy and climate protection.
Biggest flop:
Habeck tends to verbally gallop. One of his biggest verbal flops was a statement from 2019: "If you increase the price of petrol by three cents, but increase the commuter allowance by five cents, then it is more worthwhile to drive than by train." When asked that the commuter flat rate applies to all modes of transport, the Green boss stuttered.
What can be expected of him for the restructuring of the economy:
The new economy and climate minister has clear views on how the economy should work. With a view to the economic consequences of the corona pandemic, Habeck has
proposed
a
500 billion euro investment program
for a period of ten years. In the discussion about the debt brake, he called for a
reform that
should enable
higher investments in infrastructure and climate protection
. In addition,
instead of the Riester pension
, he appeals
for a citizen fund to improve old-age provision in Germany
. Part of the gross wage then automatically flows into a fund. Habeck is also a
supporter of the Berlin rent cap
, which he sees as a bridging instrument until a sufficient number of apartments are built.
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State Secretary: Sven Giegold
Photo: Hendrik Schmidt / picture alliance / dpa
Habeck's State Secretaries Sven Giegold, Patrick Graichen and Udo Philipp
Vice-Chancellor-designate Robert Habeck has brought two political heavyweights and a former private equity investor to his team as state secretaries.
State Secretary
Sven Giegold (52)
studied economics, politics and adult education.
He is one of the most eloquent Greens in the European Parliament, of which he has been a member since 2009.
The economist co-founded the globalization-critical network Attac in Germany.
Giegold has been a fighter against tax havens for years, he advocates more transparency in the financial sector.
According to Giegold, cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin should be more strictly regulated.
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State Secretary II: Patrick Graichen
Photo: Detlef Eden / picture alliance / dpa
Patrick Graichen
completed a degree in politics and economics.
Since 2014, Graichen has been executive director of the Agora Energiewende, which has developed into one of the most influential think tanks for the ecological restructuring of the economy.
He knows his way around government: he worked in the Federal Environment Ministry for more than ten years.
There are probably only a few political managers in Berlin who are more deeply involved than Graichen in issues such as climate protection, the energy transition or electromobility.
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Photo: Carsten Rehder / picture alliance / dpa
Udo Phillip (57)
joins Habeck's super ministry
as the third state secretary
- a proven economic expert.
Philipp studied economics and political science
.
Thereafter
he was a trainee at Dresdner Bank and worked for two years at the Treuhandanstalt before becoming a personal assistant to Günter Rexrodt, then Minister of Economics.
Then Phillip made it to senior partner at EQT, one of the largest private equity funds in Europe.
After leaving EQT in 2015, he founded the citizens' movement Finanzwende together with the Green finance expert Gerhard Schick.
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Labor Minister: Hubertus Heil
Photo:
ANNEGRET HILSE / REUTERS
Labor Minister: Hubertus Heil (SPD), 49
Education:
Hubertus Heil studied political science and sociology.
Political Experience
:
Just like Olaf Scholz, Heil became a member of the German Bundestag in 1998.
In 2009 he became deputy chairman of the SPD parliamentary group for the areas of economy and energy, education and research, and tourism.
In the grand coalition, he had been Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs since 2018.
Greatest success
: He was elected to the Bundestag for the first time at the age of 26.
As Federal Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, he now manages the largest budget in the federal budget.
Biggest flop:
As Secretary General, Heil was jointly responsible for the election campaign for the 2009 Bundestag election, in which the SPD achieved the worst result in its history with 23 percent.
What can be expected of him for the restructuring of the economy:
The Minister of Labor
calls for structural policy, a policy of full employment and new rules for the financial markets.
His most important goals include increasing salaries in care for the elderly, regulating mobile working even after the pandemic, and reforming basic social security.
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Finance Minister: Christian Lindner
Photo: Tobias Schwarz / AFP
Finance Minister: Christian Lindner (FDP), 42
Education:
Lindner studied political science as well as constitutional law and philosophy.
During his studies, Lindner was a reserve officer in the Air Force, was promoted to first lieutenant in the reserve and then to the liaison officer of the North Rhine-Westphalia state command.
Until 2004 he worked as a freelance management consultant and in electricity trading.
Political experience
: Lindner let entrepreneurship run out after his election as FDP General Secretary in North Rhine-Westphalia. He has been a member of the FDP since he was 17. From 2007 to 2011 Lindner was a member of the FDP federal executive committee. In 2013 he became chairman of the FDP. Now he takes up the post of finance minister.
Greatest success
: After eight years of opposition, Lindner has managed to get the FDP back into the government.
Biggest flop:
Lindner surprisingly broke coalition negotiations on a black-yellow-green government alliance in 2017. He also came under pressure in spring 2020 when the Thuringian FDP leader Thomas Kemmerich was elected Prime Minister with the votes of the AfD. "I'm going to Erfurt now, and after that there will be at least one resignation," said Lindner at the time.
What can be expected of him for the restructuring of the economy:
In the election campaign, Lindner ruled out tax increases in a possible government participation.
Instead, he advocates the privatization of Post and Telecom: The sale of the blocks of shares would bring the federal government and KfW money that they can use to reorganize the economy.
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Photo: CLEMENS BILAN / EPA
Transport and Digital Minister: Volker Wissing (FDP), 51
Education:
Wissing completed a law degree.
He then worked as a judge and public prosecutor and founded his own law firm.
Political experience
: In 2011 he became state chairman of the FDP Rhineland-Palatinate, then an assessor in the presidium of the federal party and in 2020 general secretary before he takes on the office of transport and digital minister.
Greatest success
: Volker Wissing is the newcomer to the republic's center of power.
Now he can bring his experience as a lawyer to his new position.
Biggest flop:
Wissing recently dared to venture out on which he received harsh criticism: He wants some relief for diesel drivers by lowering the vehicle tax in order to compensate for higher diesel prices.
The Greens reacted indignantly.
The SPD also kept its distance.
An example of future stress tests within the traffic light coalition.
What can be expected of him for the restructuring of the economy:
As Federal Transport Minister, Volker Wissing wants to be the "lawyer for road users".
It will be interesting to see whether this refers to all road users: the FDP already fought off a speed limit on the autobahn during the coalition negotiations.
The coalition agreement now says tellingly: "We will support digital mobility services, innovative mobility solutions and car sharing and incorporate them into a long-term strategy for autonomous and networked public transport."
Let's see what Wissing makes of it.
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Economic advisor: Jörg Kukies
Photo: Michael Kappeler / dpa
Economic advisor to the Chancellor: Jörg Kukies (SPD), 53
Education
: Jörg Kukies studied economics in Mainz.
He held various positions at the investment bank Goldman Sachs until he was appointed co-chairman of Goldman Sachs in Germany and Austria.
Political career
: while studying, he was chairman of the Rhineland-Palatinate state association of the youth organization Jusos of the SPD in the early 1990s - as the predecessor of Andrea Nahles.
In 2018, Kukies gave up the co-chairmanship of Goldman Sachs, as Olaf Scholz brought him to his finance ministry as State Secretary, where he was responsible for Europe and the financial market.
Biggest success
: Scholz is now bringing him back to the center of political power: This time, Kukies is to be his economic advisor and head of the finance and economic policy department.
Biggest flop:
Two days before Wirecard went bankrupt, Kukies urged the boss of KfW subsidiary IPEX, Klaus Michalak, to grant Wirecard a new loan. But it didn't come to that, shortly afterwards with the bankruptcy of Wirecard, Germany's biggest financial scandal to date began.
What can be expected of him for the restructuring of the economy:
The head of the finance and economic department has a lot of influence in the Chancellery.
He advises the Federal Chancellor on questions of international economic policy and maintains contact with the heads of German corporations.
Kukies is now one of the closest advisors to Scholz.
