In the new German coalition, the two ministries of Environment and Agriculture will not be merged after all. However, Food Safety will be added to Agriculture. Both ministries will be led by a minister from the Greens.
Former party chairman Cem Ăzdemir will become Minister of Agriculture. The Greens announced this on Thursday evening after hours of deliberation within the party leadership.
The Ministry of Environment and Nature will go to Steffi Lemke, one of the founders of BĂŒndnis 90/Die GrĂŒnen. Earlier, there was talk that she would lead the two merged ministries. At the same time, a separate Ministry for Rural Development will be established, likely to be headed by former Environment Minister Svenja Schulze (SPD).
Ăzdemir will be the first German minister with a Turkish migration background. He was previously a member of the Bundestag and sat in the European Parliament. Ăzdemir was national party chairman from 2008 to 2018 and won the most votes of all successful direct candidates for the Greens in the Bundestag elections. He has little experience with agricultural dossiers but is regarded as an experienced administrator and strategist.
The agriculture section of the âtraffic light coalitionâ of SPD, Greens, and FDP includes proposals such as phasing out glyphosate, reducing chemical agents in agriculture, stricter animal welfare regulations, and the introduction of a meat-food label.
It was already known that current Greens chairman Robert Habeck will become Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Climate and Energy, and co-chair Annalena Baerbock, as expected, Minister of Foreign Affairs. Anne Spiegel, currently Minister of Climate in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, will become Minister of Family Affairs. The current Vice President of the Bundestag, Claudia Roth, will become State Secretary for Culture and Media.
According to reports in the German media, there was intense internal debate within the Greens about this nomination between 'realists' and 'left-wing radicals.' Starting Friday, the more than 125,000 party members can vote on the proposed coalition agreement and ministerial team.