SPD: Complete staff for the new Berlin Senate

Created: 12/20/2021, 12:28 PM

Franziska Giffey and other people pose together with the new state secretaries.

© Carsten Koall / dpa

Now the last open questions about the new Berlin Senate have been clarified.

The SPD has named its candidates after the Greens and the Left.

Among them are two political side entrants.

Berlin - The composition of the new red-green-red Berlin Senate is now complete.

One day before the planned start of the coalition and the election of Franziska Giffey (SPD) as head of government, the SPD presented its four senators - a mix of experienced politicians on the one hand and practitioners and political newcomers on the other.

The previous Senator for the Interior, Andreas Geisel, is to take over the department for urban development, construction and housing, which he already headed from 2014 to 2016.

It is considered particularly important because affordable housing is scarce in the capital and the new coalition wants to build 20,000 new apartments a year.

Geisel's successor in the interior department is to be the long-standing MP and deputy SPD chairwoman Iris Spranger (60).

She has been a member of the House of Representatives since 1999, with an interruption from 2006 to 2011: During this time, she gained government experience as State Secretary for Finance.

Now she will be the first woman to head the Berlin interior department.

The chairperson of the Berlin School Management Association, Astrid-Sabine Busse (64), is planned to be the Senator for Education.

She has been the headmistress in the Neukölln district for around three decades.

The business department is to be taken over by the entrepreneur and former President of the Berlin Chamber of Crafts, Stephan Schwarz (56).

He heads the building cleaning company GRG, a family business with more than 3000 employees.

It has long been clear that the SPD state chairwoman and former Federal Family Minister Giffey (43) should become the governing mayor.

Her election as the successor to Michael Müller (SPD) is planned for Tuesday in the House of Representatives.

Then the ten senators - that's the name of the ministers in Berlin - are appointed and sworn in.

The Greens presented their three senatorial candidates two weeks ago: Bettina Jarasch (Environment / Transport / Climate Protection), Daniel Wesener (Finance) and Ulrike Gote (Science and Health).

There are also three senatorial posts on the left: The party wants to send its former federal chairman Katja Kipping (integration, labor, social affairs) and university professor Lena Kreck (justice) to the senate.

Then there is Klaus Lederer, who has been Senator for Culture since 2016 and remains in office.

At the presentation of the SPD personnel board, which also includes the state secretaries, Giffey spoke of a team “that stands for balance and continuity on the one hand, but also for daring new things, for the progressive and for new impulses and ideas.

With young people, with people who are experienced in life, with those who have really been committed to the SPD for many years, but also with people who have a different view of our city and who bring their experience from outside with them. "

And: "We definitely have parity," said Giffey.

“It will actually be the most feminine Senate in the history of Berlin, with a total of seven women and four men.

I think that's a good thing. "

As one of his first steps as the Senator for Urban Development, Geisel announced that he would forge the broad alliance for housing construction and affordable rents anchored in the coalition agreement.

“There is an urgent need to keep this city socially together.

That doesn't work without housing. "

Spranger wants to tackle the planned hiring offensive for 700 new employees in the police and fire department first, as she said.

"Berliners should not only feel safe in this city, Berlin should also be safe."

Busse named recruiting for schools and teaching staff as important tasks after she took office, while Schwarz called a "restart of the economy" from the Corona crisis.

The economy should quickly get back on a growth path, said the Senator-designate.

The SPD, the Greens and the Left have been ruling Berlin together since 2016.

The new coalition agreement for the next five years was presented on November 29th.

On December 5 and 12, party congresses of the SPD and the Greens approved the government program with a large majority.

Last Friday the left announced that a clear majority also said “yes” in their membership decision.

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With Giffey, Berlin is getting a governing mayor for the first time - and for the first time since reunification a city head from the GDR.

However, Giffey is not the first woman to run the city.

Because in 1947/1948 the SPD politician Louise Schroeder officiated provisionally as Lord Mayor of post-war Berlin.

dpa