Schweitzer new head of government of Rhineland-Palatinate
Published: Wednesday, Jul 10th 2024, 14:40
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The Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament has elected SPD politician Alexander Schweitzer as the new Minister President. The 50-year-old takes over as head of the south-west German state from Malu Dreyer (63), who has resigned.
In the state parliament in Mainz, the former Minister of Labour and Social Affairs, Transformation and Digitization received 57 votes. That is three more votes than the governing alliance of SPD, FDP and Greens has seats.
Dreyer had governed the state of four million inhabitants, which borders Luxembourg, Belgium and France, since 2013. With her departure, the number of women at the head of Germany's 16 federal states has fallen from three to two. At the beginning of 2023, there were still four.
Dreyer, one of the most renowned female Social Democrats, is leaving the political stage in Germany. She led the SPD at federal level on an interim basis from June 2019 to December 2019. From December 2017 to December 2019, she was one of the five deputy federal chairpersons of the SPD. From November 1, 2016 to October 31, 2017, she was President of the Bundesrat (chamber of the federal states).
The Bad Kreuznach-born politician joined the Rhineland-Palatinate state government in 2002 as Minister of Social Affairs. Dreyer survived the multi-million euro bankruptcy surrounding a planned but never completed amusement park at the Nürburgring politically unscathed and replaced long-serving state premier Kurt Beck at the head of government in 2013. The Ahr Valley flood in July 2021, which claimed 134 lives, became the most serious crisis of her time in office. The state government was accused of poor crisis management and prevention. The Prime Minister was repeatedly criticized for not apologizing after the flood disaster. She herself described it as a painful turning point that divided her life into one before and one after.
Dreyer was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 1995, which is why she is dependent on a wheelchair for longer journeys.
Schweitzer wants to work towards reviving the social democratic promise of advancement. He sees the key to this in education policy, which the SPD-led governments in the federal state have always been proud of.
©Keystone/SDA
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