Spiegel successor wanted: Five Green women in conversation - also one from Bavaria

Created: 04/12/2022, 11:48 am

By: Florian Naumann

Green retreat in Husum: Omid Nouripour as a door opener for a new woman in the traffic light cabinet?

© Frank Molter/dpa/picture-alliance

The Greens are looking for a new minister after Anne Spiegel's departure.

Unexpected solutions don't seem to be out of the question - as does renewed wing fighting.

Berlin - Amid great turbulence, the Greens had put together their ministerial team in December - it was about Fundis and Realos, about gender relations and probably also about diversity.

And, as some observers complained, not consistently about the greatest possible competence.

Now the party has to go again: Family Minister Anne Spiegel has thrown in the towel after a scandal about a vacation in the Rhineland-Palatinate flood disaster summer.

There is now an open question that would make waves in politically less turbulent times.

Who will be the successor in Spiegel's previous department?

The only thing that seems clear is that it should be quick.

And of course the first names are also circulating in political Berlin.

Green mirror successor wanted: New woman must be in the traffic light cabinet – decision should be made quickly

Green leader Ricarda Lang announced on Monday morning that a decision would be made in the next two or three days.

You don't think "that we will deal with this question beyond Easter," said Lang on the ntv program "Frühstart".

The Greens did not answer directly whether a woman would follow Anne Spiegel again.

But she gave a clear indication.

The party had stipulated that ministerial posts would be filled equally.

"Of course, we will stick to this principle." The Greens have five ministerial posts in the federal cabinet: so far, three have been occupied by women and two by men.

Means: If a man were to succeed, another man would have to go in a cabinet reshuffle - Robert Habeck or Cem Özdemir.

A replacement of the Vice Chancellor and Greens pioneer Habeck is almost unthinkable, the Özdemirs would be a massive surprise after the dispute in November.

In any case, the family ministry has been in female hands for decades.

Family Minister since 1982: 13 women and one man - Spiegel first Greens in office:

• 1982 - 1985 Heiner Geissler (CDU)

• 1985 - 1988 Rita Süssmuth (CDU)

• 1988 - 1991 Ursula Lehr (CDU)

• 1991 - 1994 Hannelore Rönsch (CDU)

• 1994 - 1998 Claudia Nolte (CDU)

• 1998 - 2002 Christine Bergmann (SPD)

• 2002 - 2005 Renate Schmidt (SPD)

• 2005 - 2009 Ursula von der Leyen (CDU)

• 2009 - 2013 Kristina Schroeder (CDU)

• 2013 - 2017 Manuela Schwesig (SPD)

• 2017 - 2018 Katarina Barley (SPD)

• 2018 - 2021 Franziska Giffey (SPD)

• 2021 Christine Lambrecht (SPD)

• 2021 - 2022 Anne Spiegel (Green Party)

Greens are looking for a successor to Anne Spiegel - there is speculation about five women

The Green tip is currently on retreat in Husum.

Lang and her co-boss Omid Nouripour should have their hands full with the personnel issue.

Ideally, they are looking for a woman - one from the left wing of the party.

Alongside Environment Minister Steffi Lemke, Spiegel was one of only two left-wing representatives in the Greens ministerial package.

A first option would probably be

.

The 37-year-old meets both requirements.

Even Lang did not rule out this variant.

Experience is not a question of age, she emphasized.

Theoretically also conceivable: a change from

herself to the federal cabinet.

, among others, speculated about this solution

.

However, this option would have consequences - the Greens would have to restructure their party leadership.

The party statutes allow the simultaneous office of minister and party leader only for a transitional period.

For this reason, Habeck and Annalena Baerbock had stepped down as party leaders.

Two other prominent Green women seemed predestined for the post for different reasons.

However, their "Realo" status could block their way into the cabinet.

had already been hotly traded in the fall.

The Thuringian with strong church ties is anything but left by Green standards.

Dröge

has also been at the forefront for years and is even a trained social worker.

But she doesn't belong to the Fundi wing either.

But there is also speculation about a realistic "internal ministry" solution: The Bavarian Green

is already Parliamentary State Secretary in the family department - and could have a chance of more, as the

speculates.

She would then be the only Bavarian in the cabinet.

The Neu-Ulmerin would have expertise.

Among other things, she is Vice President of the Child Protection Association.

Deligöz's migration background could also be interesting for the Greens - the party's traffic light probing team was mocked in the fall as "diverse like white sausage".

However, Deligöz is also a "reformer" or "Reala".

Green ministers: occupation "from office"?

Maybe it's more about "left" and "right"

All of this is bad news for Anton Hofreiter.

The deputy from the Munich area was surprisingly empty in the ministry distribution.

Lang blocked a question about Hofreiter on Monday.

"I hope you understand that I'm not going to start negotiating names on TV," she explained.

At the same time, Lang emphasized that the party would fill the post from the office.

This sentence could also have ringed in Hofreiter's ears.

The former Green Party leader is (also) considered an expert on agricultural issues.

Ultimately, however, Özdemir became Minister of Agriculture - the editor-in-chief of the newspaper

, which is close to the Greens , Ulrike Winkelmann, had a different thesis ready at the time.

The logic behind the cast was "that a man from the right wing cannot replace a man from the left wing without replacing a right-wing woman with a left-wing woman," she commented on the complicated Green arithmetic.

This is one of the reasons why Özdemir Spiegel became Family Minister instead of Katrin Göring-Eckardt after the decision was made.

Now the Greens are almost back to where the debate started.

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