EPA
NOS Nieuws•vandaag, 11:11
German politician Wolfgang Schäuble has died at the age of 81. The CDU politician served in the German parliament for more than 50 years and during his long political career he was, among other things, Minister of the Interior and President of the Bundestag.
Outside Germany, he is best known as Finance Minister under Chancellor Merkel, who helped contain the euro crisis with his strict policies. He died last night in the presence of his family, his relatives reported to the German news agency DPA.
Schäuble was in a wheelchair for much of his life. In 1990 he survived an assassination attempt; a mentally disturbed man shot him during an election rally, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down. A few weeks after the attack, Schäuble returned to politics.
Young parliamentarian
Schäuble worked for the German tax authorities and was a lawyer for several years. He entered politics in 1972. He became a member of the Bundestag and, at the age of 30, was one of the youngest parliamentarians at the time. In 2014, he became the longest-serving member.
The Christian Democrat was a minister in various German cabinets, first under Chancellor Helmut Kohl and since 2005 under Angela Merkel. He also led the negotiations for the reunification of East and West Germany in the early 1990s.
As Minister of Finance, he pursued a strict budget policy from 2009 to 2017. He played a major role in containing the euro crisis by restructuring the Greek national debt. Due to his strict rules, he was not equally popular, especially in Southern Europe.
Most popular politician
In Germany he was. After Schäuble quit as Finance Minister in 2017 at the age of 75, a survey showed that he was the most popular politician in the country.
And in 2018 he received a high Dutch award in Berlin for his services during the euro crisis. He was appointed Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Orange-Nassau. Minister Hoekstra, then Minister of Finance, presented the award.
According to Hoekstra, Schäuble remained committed to keeping the eurozone together, at a time when much was uncertain. “No one knew how great the misery would be,” Hoekstra said at the time. “His efforts are of enormous merit. That is why he receives the highest award we have.”
2023-12-27 10:11:01
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