BERLIN – German Interior Minister Nancy Feiser’s decision to remain in office while campaigning in a regional election has sparked criticism among the coalition government.
Fazer is her Social Democratic Party’s top candidate in this fall’s regional election in Hesse, but remains in the federal cabinet, making her the first federal minister in a decade to split time between running a ministry and regional campaigning. Worrying increased his ability to do his job.
Asked on Monday by Politico whether there are any rules governing the combination of campaigning and holding office, a spokesperson for his ministry said at a press briefing, “It is definitely a democratic matter that people run for offices.” run for democratic election since, as have all prime ministers … and … the current chancellor [do],
Fazer said she is “running to win” and running to become the first female regional leader of Hesse, a state in the heart of Germany with 6 million residents.
But she plans to continue as Germany’s interior minister if the chancellor of the Hessian state in Wiesbaden fails to take over, she wrote an internal letter to ministry staff, seen by Politico, and then announced in an interview Spiegel magazine.
Although other claimants also have full-time jobs in high office – including Hesse’s current minister-president of the Christian Democratic Union Boris Rein and his Green deputy Tarek al-Wazir – public debate has focused mainly on Feser, who has defected to the SPD. have led. in Hesse since 2019, and she insisted she would continue Creature A federal minister “with full force.”
Not everyone buys his promise.
“In times like these, you cannot politically dance at two weddings at the same time,” said Konstantin von Notz, a senior Bundestag member of the Greens. Interior Ministry “not an appropriate election campaign stage in these critical times,” Said Wolfgang Kubicki, a Free Democrat legislator and Deputy Speaker of the Bundestag.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz came to the defense of his minister and party colleague late last week, saying Fezer would carry out his ministerial duties despite his decision to run for the top post in Hesse.
“Nancy Fezer, who I know is a very conscientious woman, will do everything she can every day for the job she has,” Scholz said.
The minister’s decision came as little surprise, as rumors that she might run for office in Hesse had been circulating for almost a year.
Former Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht said in May 2022, “I am becoming not only the SPD’s top candidate in Hesse next year, but also the first female minister-president in Hesse.” ,” Fesser replied as he left Berlin.
Her change of mind comes as the German Interior Ministry faces a number of pressing issues, including right-wing extremism, Islamist terrorist attacks, migration policy and tackling organized crime. Fazer has to deal with those challenges — and oversee a ministry with about 19 agencies and a total of 85,000 employees — while also running an re-election campaign.
As a consequence, his potential move from Berlin to Wiesbaden has resulted in his track record coming under scrutiny – including in the area of cyber.
“It hasn’t achieved many visible results yet,” IT security expert Manuel Atug told POLITICO in December. She didn’t seem to understand that “the coalition agreement is a work order for her,” he said.
The interior ministry should deliver key coalition policies, such as strengthening the country’s cyber security agency, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI). However, Pfizer fired its chairman, Arne Schönbohm, last October after the latter widely dismissed claims that he had an affair. Russia,
in the latest infratest voteAs of October, the SPD stood at 22 percent – 5 percentage points behind the CDU, which currently leads a coalition with the Greens.