The prominent German Christian Democratic (CDU) politician Wolfgang Schäuble, who for more than five decades held decisive positions in the politics of the Federal Republic of Germany, has died at the age of 81 in Offenburg after a long illness, reported his family, whose spokesperson noted that the death took place on Tuesday surrounded by his loved ones. Parliamentarian of the Bundestag from 1972 until his death, between 1989 and 1991 he was federal minister of the Chancellery for Special Affairs and then holder of the Interior portfolio until 1991 under the Government of Helmut Kohl, as well as leader of the Interior between 2005 and 2009 and holder of Finance between 2009 and 2017 in Angela Merkel's Executive. From that last year until 2021 he presided over the Federal Parliament.
Married and father of four children, Wolfgang Schäuble was the target of an attack in October 1990 during an electoral event by a mentally disturbed man who shot him in the face and back, causing extremely serious injuries and paralysis of the waist. down which forced him to use a wheelchair ever since, although it did not prevent him from continuing to be one of the most active and influential politicians in Germany. Between 1991 and 2000 he was leader of the conservative parliamentary group of Bavarian Christian Democrats and Social Christians (CDU / CSU) in the German Lower House and in 1998 the presidency of the CDU, in which Angela Merkel then held the General Secretary. Schäuble was one of the central figures in the donation scandal to his party in 1999 that marked the end of Helmut Kohl's political career.
After acknowledging that he had received a donation of 100,000 marks for his training, he resigned in February 2000 as president of the Christian Democrats, a position in which he was succeeded by Angela Merkel. After five years of penance, he once again assumed important positions in the German Executive under Merkel and achieved fame beyond German borders during the international financial crisis and the euro crisis as a defender of a severe savings policy that forced to also take on southern European countries such as Greece, Spain and Portugal as federal Minister of Finance. A policy that he also applied at home with the so-called “black zero” or the preparation of national budgets without new debt.
With the loss of power by the Christian Democrats after the 2021 legislative elections, Schäuble abandoned all the unions of his party and became a simple deputy of the Lower House. As the oldest elected parliamentarian, he presided at the age of 79 over the constituent session of the Bundestag after the elections.
The current president of the CDU, Friedrich Merz, was affected by the death of his co-religionist. “With Wolfgang Schäuble I lose the closest friend and advisor I have ever had in politics,” Merz wrote on platform Scholz, for whom the country has lost “a sharp thinker, a passionate politician and a combative democrat”, as well as “a Christian Democrat by training who liked to argue and who, however, never lost sight of what politics: improving the lives of citizens.
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