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Nancy Faeser

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Nancy Faeser (German pronunciation: [ˈnɛnsi ˈfɛːzɐ]; born 13 July 1970) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), serving as Federal Minister of the Interior and Community in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet since 2021. She served as a member of the State Parliament of Hesse from the 2003 elections until 2021.[2] In 2019, she became the party's leader in Hesse, as well as the leader of the Opposition in the Landtag of Hesse.

Nancy Faeser
Official portrait, 2023
Minister of the Interior and Community
Incumbent
Assumed office
8 December 2021
ChancellorOlaf Scholz
Preceded byHorst Seehofer (Interior, Building and Community)
Leader of the Social Democratic Party in Hesse
Incumbent
Assumed office
1 October 2019
General SecretaryChristoph Degen
DeputyKirsten Fründt
Timon Gremmels
Kaweh Mansoori
Preceded byThorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Leader of the Social Democratic Party in the Landtag of Hesse
In office
4 September 2019 – 8 December 2021
Preceded byThorsten Schäfer-Gümbel
Succeeded byGünter Rudolph
General Secretary of the Social Democratic Party in Hesse
In office
2014–2019
Member of the Landtag of Hesse
In office
5 April 2003 – 8 December 2021
Preceded bymulti-member district
Succeeded byRüdiger Holschuh
ConstituencySocial Democratic Party List
Personal details
Born (1970-07-13) 13 July 1970 (age 54)
Bad Soden, West Germany (now Germany)
Political partySocial Democratic Party
SpouseEyke Grüning[1]
Children1
ResidenceSchwalbach am Taunus
Alma materGoethe University Frankfurt
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Academic
  • Lawyer
Website

Education and early career

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Faeser went to elementary school in Schwalbach am Taunus, a suburb of Frankfurt am Main, and passed her Abitur at the Albert-Einstein-Gymnasium.

From 1990 to 2000 Faeser studied law at the Goethe University Frankfurt. She completed a semester abroad at the New College of California and graduated with her second state bar exam as a licensed attorney.[3]

Until 2000, Faeser worked as a research assistant at Clifford Chance in Frankfurt am Main and then, after her bar exam, worked as a full-time lawyer at Clifford Chance from 2000 to 2007.[3]

Political career

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Career in state politics

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Faeser joined the SPD in 1988.[4]

In parliament, Faeser served as a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs (2003–2009), the Committee on the Election of Judges (2003–2013), the Committee on Economic Affairs, Energy and Transport (2014–2018) and the Committee on Internal Affairs (since 2009).[5] From 2009, she was her parliamentary group's spokesperson on internal affairs.

In the 2013 Hesse state election, Faeser was the shadow minister for internal affairs in the campaign team of SPD candidate Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel.[6] In 2019, she was elected her parliamentary group's chairwoman.

On 17 June 2023, Faeser was elected as the top candidate on the party list in the upcoming 2023 Hessian state election, and also stood as the party's direct candidate in the Main-Taunus I electoral district in Frankfurt's northwestern suburbs, which includes her hometown of Schwalbach am Taunus. However, she won only 14.8% of the direct vote in the district, coming third after CDU (43.9%) and the Greens (16.1%).[7][8] She was elected on the party list, but all three federal government parties (SPD, the Greens and FDP) suffered losses in the election, with SPD winning only 15% of the vote in its worst performance in the state history and coming third after CDU (34.6%) and AfD (18.4%). The loss can be attributed to discontent with Scholz's government, of which she is a minister.[9]

Minister of the Interior, 2021–present

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In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) following the 2021 German elections, Faeser was part of her party's delegation in the working group on migration and integration, co-chaired by Boris Pistorius, Luise Amtsberg and Joachim Stamp.[10]

After the coalition was successfully formed, on 6 December 2021, it was announced that Faeser would become the first female Interior Minister of Germany in the German government in the Scholz cabinet.[11] In her capacity as minister, Faeser also takes part in the meetings of the Standing Conference of Interior Ministers and Senators of the States (IMK).

Faeser was nominated by her party as delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2022.[12]

 
Nancy Faeser in 2023

In September 2022, the Ministry of the Interior under Faeser closed the "Expert Group on Political Islamism" set up by her predecessor, Horst Seehofer.[13]

Prior to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, when asked in an interview with ARD's Monitor about the awarding of the event to the country, she emphasised that awarding major sporting events should be linked to compliance with human rights and principles of sustainability, by saying: "There are criteria that must be adhered to and it would be better that tournaments are not awarded to such states."[14] In response, the Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the remarks, and Qatar summoned the German ambassador to protest against her comments.[15][16] Faeser attended Germany's first game at the World Cup on 23 November where she wore a OneLove armband (a pro LGBTQ+ symbol)[16] which FIFA had prevented players from wearing in the tournament with threats of sanctions.[17]

 
Faeser with Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas in Munich, Germany, 18 February 2023

In March 2023, Faeser participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany and Japan in Tokyo, chaired by Chancellor Scholz and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.[18]

In April 2023, Faeser appointed an eight-person commission to re-appraise the attack on Israeli athletes and team members at the 1972 Summer Olympics to answer unresolved questions.[19]

After the outbreak of the Israel–Hamas war, Faeser passed laws criminalizing alleged Hamas slogans, including "from the river to the sea".[20] Liz Fekete criticized Faeser's interpretation that the slogan was uniquely linked to Hamas. Such a reading, according to Fekete, can be seen as "silencing Palestinians and smearing their aspirations".[21]

In July 2024 Faeser imposed a ban on the magazin Compact arguing that the magazine worked against constitutional order.[22] The editor-in-chief Jürgen Elsässer described the decision as "the worst invasion of press freedom in Germany."[23]

Immigration

In her first year in office, Faeser extended border checks at crossings from Austria for six months after a rise in the number of migrants arriving via the Western Balkans route.[24][25]

Following Faeser's propospal, Germany's coalition government listed Georgia and Moldova as safe countries of origin in August 2023, in an effort to process asylum applications from those countries more quickly and lead to faster deportations for failed applicants.[26]

In September 2023, more than 120 boats carrying around 7,000 migrants from Africa arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa within 24 hours.[27] Faeser said that "in view of the massive influx of migrants to Lampedusa, Berlin wants to once again, voluntarily, accept migrants from Italy, which was recently halted."[28]

Other activities

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Personal life

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Faeser's father Horst (1942–2003) was the mayor of her hometown of Schwalbach am Taunus from 1988 to 2002.

Faeser has been married to lawyer Eyke Grüning since 2012.[34] The couple have a son and live in Schwalbach am Taunus.[35]

References

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  1. ^ "Nancy Faeser: Mann Eyke, Herkunft, Partei und Pannen" (in German). Retrieved 9 June 2024.
  2. ^ "ZEIT ONLINE | Lesen Sie zeit.de mit Werbung oder im PUR-Abo. Sie haben die Wahl". www.zeit.de. Archived from the original on 18 January 2022. Retrieved 5 June 2021.
  3. ^ a b Yumpu.com. "Faeser, Nancy - Lebenslauf - SPD Hessen". yumpu.com (in German). Retrieved 5 June 2022.
  4. ^ Susanne Höll (29 January 2019), Profil: Nancy Faeser Süddeutsche Zeitung.
  5. ^ Nancy Faeser Archived 9 November 2021 at the Wayback Machine State Parliament of Hesse.
  6. ^ Christoph Schmidt Lunau (9 July 2013), Hessen vor der Wahl: Die Elf von TSG Der Tagesspiegel.
  7. ^ "Hessen Wahlergebnis". wahlen.hessen-ltw23.23degrees.eu. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  8. ^ "Ergebnisse für den Wahlkreis Main-Taunus I | Landtagswahl Hessen 2023". hessenschau.de (in German). 9 October 2023. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  9. ^ "Hesse: SPD's Faeser concedes defeat in 'disappointing result' – DW – 10/08/2023". dw.com. Retrieved 17 October 2023.
  10. ^ Britt-Marie Lakämper (21 October 2021), SPD, Grüne, FDP: Diese Politiker verhandeln die Ampel-Koalition Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung.
  11. ^ Stroh, Kassian (6 December 2021). "Lauterbach wird Gesundheitsminister, Scholz benennt SPD-Minister". Süddeutsche.de (in German). Retrieved 6 December 2021.
  12. ^ 17th Federal Convention, 13 February 2022, List of Members Bundestag.
  13. ^ "Aus für den "Expertenkreis Politischer Islamismus"". faz.net (in German). 4 September 2022.
  14. ^ "Faeser kritisiert Fußball-WM in Katar". tagesschau.de (in German). 27 October 2022.
  15. ^ "GCC condemns German minister's remarks on Qatar World Cup 2022". Al Jazeera. 30 October 2022.
  16. ^ a b Rinaldi, Gabriel (21 November 2022). "Top German minister will travel to Qatar World Cup despite criticism". Politico.
  17. ^ "Germany players cover mouths in team photo amid OneLove armband row". ESPN. 23 November 2022.
  18. ^ Regierungskonsultationen: Scholz und Minister in Japan Tagesschau, 18 March 2023.
  19. ^ Miranda Murray (21 April 2023), Germany appoints commission to re-appraise 1972 Munich Olympics attack Reuters.
  20. ^ Rath, Christian (13 November 2023). "„From the River to the sea": Palästinenser-Parole verboten – bis zu drei Jahre Freiheitsstrafe". www.rnd.de (in German). Retrieved 8 June 2024.
  21. ^ Fekete, Liz (24 May 2024). "Anti-Palestinian racism and the criminalisation of international solidarity in Europe". Race & Class. doi:10.1177/03063968241253708. ISSN 0306-3968.
  22. ^ "Press release of the German Interior Ministry".
  23. ^ "German far-right rails against banning of Compact magazine – DW – 17/07/2024". dw.com. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  24. ^ Alexander Ratz and Maria Sheahan (11 October 2022), Germany extends checks at Austrian border as migrant numbers rise Politico Europe.
  25. ^ "Innenministerin Faeser: Sorge um gestiegenen Einreisezahlen von Migranten". rnd.de (in German). 11 October 2022.
  26. ^ Alexander Ratz (30 August 2023), German government agrees new 2.4 bln euro basic child allowance Reuters.
  27. ^ "What's behind the surge in migrant arrivals to Italy?". AP News. 15 September 2023.
  28. ^ "Germany agrees to accept some migrants from Italy amid Lampedusa crisis". Telewizja Polska. 16 September 2023.
  29. ^ Board of Trusteees German Foundation for Active Citizenship and Volunteering (DSEE).
  30. ^ Political Advisory Board Business Forum of the Social Democratic Party of Germany.
  31. ^ Board of Trustees Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security and Law.
  32. ^ EBS Law School: Advisory Board of Trustees EBS University of Business and Law.
  33. ^ Broadcasting Council: Nancy Faeser Hessischer Rundfunk.
  34. ^ Nancy Faeser traut sich Frankfurter Rundschau, 5 October 2012.
  35. ^ Carsten Knop (6 December 2021), Neue Bundesinnenministerin: Wer ist Nancy Faeser? Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
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