Christine Lambrecht will no longer be Minister of Defense by next week. When looking for a successor, Scholz’ own rules limit the search enormously.
Update from January 16, 10:40 a.m.: Now it is official! Christine Lambrecht asked Olaf Scholz for her release. “The months-long media focus” on her person “hardly allows for factual reporting and discussion” on issues of the Bundeswehr and security policy decisions, according to a written statement by Lambrecht on Monday. “I have therefore decided to make my office available.”
So far nothing is known about a successor. It is now Chancellor Scholz’s turn and he faces a difficult task.
First report: Berlin – Christine Lambrecht seems to have no future as Minister of Defense. According to reports, the SPD politician will resign from office in the next few days. The search for a successor is proving difficult, primarily because of the proportional representation and parity rules imposed by the federal government itself. Some qualifying candidates are either male or in the wrong party.
Klingbeil and Strack-Zimmermann as Lambrecht successors: Scholz rules prevent nomination
As the strongest party in the Bundestag elections, the SPD has the most ministerial posts, and this will remain the case even after Lambrecht’s possible resignation. Therefore, the Ministry of Defense should remain in the hands of the SPD. At the same time, Chancellor Scholz has committed himself to parity, i.e. an equal ratio of male and female ministerial posts. That is why there should also be a female defense minister in Germany in the future.
This restriction has already disqualified some candidates. The Parliamentary Secretary of State in the Ministry of Defence Thomas Hitschler is also of the wrong gender, as was the former defense spokesman Fritz Felsentreu or SPD chief Lars Klingbeil. His father was a soldier, and Klingbeil himself first made a name for himself in the Bundestag’s Defense Committee. After the federal elections, he was considered a promising candidate for the defense department. Because Norbert Walter-Borjans resigned as party leader, Klingbeil gave up. Since then he has been co-party leader with Saskia Esken.
Considered to be at least as suitable Marie Agnes Strack Zimmermann. The defense experts of the FDP distinguished themselves in the Ukraine war and is chairwoman of the defense committee of the German Bundestag. She was also considered a promising candidate in 2021, but the FDP secured the finance, transport, education and justice departments. Should Strack-Zimmermann become defense minister, the Free Democrats would have to give up a ministry – and offer it to the SPD in exchange. An unrealistic scenario.
Possible Lambrecht resignation: Eva Högl is the top candidate for the successor
Seems the most realistic Eva Högl for the successor in the event of a Lambrecht resignation. The Federal Government Commissioner for the Armed Forces has recently been mentioned more frequently as a possible Defense Minister. Högl sat in the Bundestag for the SPD from 2009 to 2020 and was at times the vice president of the parliamentary group. The office of the Commissioner for the Armed Forces is enshrined in the Basic Law. The military commissioner is regarded as the “soldiers’ advocate”.
A Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces is appointed to protect fundamental rights and to assist the Bundestag in exercising parliamentary control.
Högl’s advantage: She knows the structures of the Bundeswehr and knows how to deal with the ruined military savings. The SPD politician repeatedly commented on German defense policy during the Ukraine war, usually more clearly than Lambrecht. It was only on Friday that she pushed ahead in the debate about tank deliveries to Ukraine. She is convinced that Leopard tanks could “decisively help” Ukraine. When it comes to supporting Kiev, it is right to “contribute everything we can,” said Högl Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Defense Department also has outsider chances to succeed Lambrecht, Siemtje Moller. She knows the department and previously gained experience on the defense committee. The two members of the Defense Committee only have theoretical chances Rebecca Schammer and Marja-Liisa Völlers, also deputy defense policy spokeswoman for the SPD. Regardless of who succeeds Lambrecht: a mammoth task is to be expected, since the department is by no means a rewarding job, even in times of peace. (as)
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