Minister President of Rhineland-Palatinate announces her resignation
Published: Wednesday, Jun 19th 2024, 11:20
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The Minister President of the German state of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer, has announced her resignation after more than eleven years in office. She is to be succeeded in July by Alexander Schweitzer, the former state minister for labour and social affairs, transformation and digitalization, according to information from government circles obtained by Deutsche Presse-Agentur on Wednesday.
Previously, "Die Rheinpfalz", "Der Spiegel" and "Die Zeit" had reported on this. There had been speculation about such a move by the Social Democrat for some time. Dreyer intends to make a statement at a press conference in Mainz on Wednesday afternoon (2 p.m.).
The 63-year-old Dreyer has been head of government of the state in south-west Germany since 2013. She succeeded Kurt Beck at the time. She currently leads a coalition of the SPD, Greens and FDP.
According to the daily newspaper "Rheinpfalz", Schweitzer is to stand for election as Minister President in the state parliament before the parliamentary summer break. The next state election in Rhineland-Palatinate is scheduled for spring 2026, which would give Schweitzer the chance to go into this election as a high-profile head of government.
Schweitzer, who comes from the city of Landau, has been back in the Rhineland-Palatinate cabinet since the government was formed after the 2021 state elections. The 50-year-old Social Democrat had already been a minister in 2013 and 2014, and in the meantime he was head of the SPD parliamentary group in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament. In addition to Schweitzer, Interior Minister Michael Ebling and the current head of the state parliamentary group Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (both SPD) were also being considered as Dreyer's successor.
©Keystone/SDA
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