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German Leader Reshuffles Top Posts 07/24 06:26
BERLIN (AP) -- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reshuffled top posts on
Friday as he tries to boost the fortunes of his deeply unpopular government
ahead of regional elections in which a far-right party could get its first
state governor.
Merz took office less than 15 months ago with pledges to reform and turn
around Germany's economy, Europe's biggest, after years of stagnation. But that
economic turnaround has been slow to start. And the middle-of-the-road
coalition of Merz's center-right Union bloc and the center-left Social
Democrats, two traditional rivals, has yet to persuade voters that it can
produce results.
That has resulted in Merz's popularity sinking to rock-bottom levels, while
the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, has gained support on the back
of widespread discontent.
Merz seizes an opportunity
Merz took the opportunity to make a series of changes after a senior ally
quit as the leader of his bloc's parliamentary group over personal conduct that
undermined his credibility. Merz plans to put his chief of staff, Thorsten
Frei, in that job.
The German leader said Health Minister Nina Warken will take Frei's place at
the chancellery, a post that is key to the smooth functioning of the
government. She will be the first woman to take that job. Another close ally,
Carsten Linnemann, the general secretary of Merz's Christian Democratic Union
party, will become health minister.
Merz said there will be further Cabinet changes, but didn't offer details.
He said those decisions will take "a few days yet, and perhaps more time."
"The personnel changes follow a clear line," he said. "We want a government
that works with great vigor and pleasure and also represents the personal
diversity of our society and politics. We are a reform government and want to
continue showing that."
Difficult regional elections are ahead
The governing parties face three difficult regional elections in September.
In the eastern region of Saxony-Anhalt on Sept. 6, AfD is hopeful of winning a
majority that would give it control of a state government for the first time.
After months in which voters were turned off by squabbling in the coalition,
Merz's government recently embarked on big plans for potentially painful change
-- including a proposed reform of the creaking pension system that would
include raising the retirement age gradually, income tax cuts for low- and
middle-income earners and an effort to slash red tape.
"The government has found its rhythm, despite some criticism," Merz declared
last week. "We have delivered, and we have recognized the dimension of the
tasks we face."
Ally quit over surrogacy
Only days later, though, he faced a new distraction. Jens Spahn quit as
leader of the Union's parliamentary group -- one of the most powerful positions
in the coalition -- after it emerged that he and his husband had used the
services of a surrogate mother in the U.S. to have a baby.
Surrogacy isn't allowed in Germany. Merz's party opposes allowing it, a
position that it reaffirmed at a convention in February, and Spahn himself had
spoken out against it in the past. That prompted accusations of double
standards.
Frei will now take Spahn's job, a position he's widely considered better
suited to than coordinating the chancellery. Frei was the Union's parliamentary
chief whip under Merz when the center-right was in opposition.
Warken takes his place at the chancellery after shepherding the first of the
government's reforms, meant to curb rising costs in the German health insurance
system, through parliament earlier this month.
Merz said she has showed that "she can push through reforms against
resistance," praised her as a tough negotiator and said that "she is also at
home with the security policy issues" that are important at the chancellery.
Linnemann, a conservative who lacks government experience, will take her
place at the Health Ministry. Merz said that "we must maintain the course of
reform" in health policy and that requires a "steadfast" minister.
"Friedrich Merz wants to show that this coalition is capable of acting, that
he as chancellor is capable of acting," Uwe Jun, a political science professor
at the University of Trier, told Deutschlandfunk radio. "He wants to put it on
a faster and stronger path now."
Merz took no questions and didn't mention several German media reports that
he also plans to replace Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder.
Merz's coalition last year set up a huge fund to underpin an effort to
upgrade worn-out transport infrastructure, but frustration remains -- for
example with the unreliability of the national railway.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel argued that Merz had caused "yet more chaos" with
his reshuffle and said in a post on X that the government being preoccupied
with itself doesn't do justice to Germany's "many-faceted" problems.
"Germany needs new elections," she wrote. The next national election isn't
due until early 2029.
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