East German shepherd relinquishes positions under pressure from Merkel
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As of: 3:20 p.m. | Reading time: 3 minutes
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Grand coalition advises on further action after election of Thuringia
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Because of the chaos after the Thuringia election, the top politicians of the grand coalition meet in the chancellery that evening. Christian Hirte, Federal Government Commissioner for Eastern Affairs, resigned from his position before the meeting.
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The former Federal Government Commissioner for the East, Christian Hirte, has resigned after talking to Chancellor Merkel. The reason is a controversial tweet. SPD politician Tiefensee called the resignation “inevitable”.
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es is the third announced resignation in the Thuringia crisis: The Federal Government’s East German commissioner, Christian Hirte, is resigning at the instigation of Chancellor Angela Merkel. The CDU politician said on Saturday in a Twitter message.
During the conversation, Merkel had informed him that he could no longer be an agent for the New Länder. “Following your suggestion, I asked for my release,” he said.
Government spokesman Steffen Seibert confirmed via Twitter that the Chancellor proposed to the Federal President Hirtes dismissal as Secretary of State for the Economic State.
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The trigger is a message from the 43-year-old on Twitter: Hirte, who comes from Thuringia and is the deputy CDU chief there, had expressly congratulated the election of the Thuringian FDP Prime Minister Thomas Kemmerich, who had been elected with AfD votes. He wrote to Kemmerich: “Your choice as a candidate in the middle shows once again that the Thuringians have voted out red-red-green. Good luck for this difficult task for the good of the Free State. “
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The congratulations tweet from the day of the election could still be seen on Saturday. Digital Minister of State Dorothee Bär (CSU) also sent congratulations to Kemmerich via Twitter, but later deleted her tweet and described it as an error.
After the tweet, the SPD and the opposition immediately pushed for Herder’s resignation. Someone who describes the electoral community of CDU, FDP and AfD as “center” cannot speak on behalf of the SPD and thus the Federal Government, SPD leader Saskia Esken said.
Esken welcomed the resignation: “It would not have been sustainable for us to remain in office,” said the SPD leader in Berlin on Saturday. However, there were “still many serious questions for the CDU” that had to be clarified in the coalition committee.
Tiefensee: Resignation was “inevitable and overdue”
Thuringia’s SPD leader Wolfgang Tiefensee also welcomed the resignation – but called for further consequences in the CDU. Shepherd’s decision was “inevitable and long overdue”. But he should not be the only episode in the CDU as a peasant victim.
For the left-wing parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch, the dismissal is “a necessary and logical step”, as he told the editorial network Germany (Saturday). “Anyone who congratulates Kemmerich on the election did not pay attention in history lessons. And that’s why he has no business in the federal government. “
Mecklenburg-West Pomerania’s Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig (SPD) also welcomed the resignation of the Federal Government’s East Commissioner, Christian Hirte, and praised Merkel’s decision on Twitter: “In the future, we will again need an East Commissioner to represent the interests of East Germans and above all shows a clear edge against right-wing populism / right-wing extremism and strengthens local democratic civil society. “
Juso boss Kevin Kühnert wrote on Twitter, Shepherd is the “first free-rider” of the “blue-black-yellow shame”, who must now go. And further: “Many will have to follow him”.
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Shepherd had taken up his post as Eastern Commissioner in March 2018. He saw himself as a “lobbyist” for the East. The CDU politician had repeatedly raised criticism with statements. Shepherd has been a member of the Bundestag since 2008.
He is also Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry of Economics and also the Federal Government’s representative for medium-sized companies. It was initially unclear on Saturday whether the business lawyer would keep the latter position. According to Seibert, his minister Peter Altmaier (CDU) approved the dismissal as state secretary. It was also unclear when shepherd would vacate this position.
The office of “Federal Government Commissioner for the New Federal States” is located at the Federal Ministry of Economics. Among other things, the officer should work for the creation of equivalent living conditions in Germany.
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