Kristina Köhler: Eight questions about the new Family Minister
1. Why did Merkel come right up to her?
Is an avowed Merkel fan: Kristina Köhler
Certainly not because of Köhler's excessive family commitment: So far, the 32-year-old has distanced herself from this policy area: "Young woman makes family policy" she found "so clichéd", she therefore focused on more masculine topics such as internal security, Islamism, Extremism. She is now catapulting her origins onto the ministerial chair. Like the resigned Franz Josef Jung, Köhler from Hesse, more precisely from Wiesbaden, also comes from the constituency since 2002 in the Bundestag. The party-internal Landesproporz forced Angela Merkel last week to bring after Jung again a Hesse or a Hessin into the Cabinet. And Köhler was just right: As an assertive young talent, she has been around for some time. Confessing Merkel fan is her too. That can not hurt in such cases.
2. What did you notice so far?
Especially through two actions, she caused a stir on the political scene: At the end of 2004 Köhler discovered by chance in a Turkish newspaper sold in Germany a hate article in which the Holocaust was denied. She quoted the job in the Bundestag, filed a complaint against the editorial board, was threatened by another Hetz article, got police protection - and enormous media coverage. The second coup succeeded in late 2008 as a chairperson of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group in the BND committee of inquiry: Undaunted and excellently prepared, she took vice-chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier into the shortage - and became the secret star of the event. The new Family Minister is definitely not afraid of strong opponents, which connects them with her predecessor from the Leyen.
3. Did you ever get something out of hand?
Not really - apart from two sensitive defeats against her rival for the direct mandate in Wiesbaden, the former Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul (SPD). Köhler simply did not have enough responsible positions for the big ripper. For the big political throws, however, too.
4. Is she too young?
Chicks in the Cabinet: Already at 14 Kristina Köhler joined the Junge Union
She is not the youngest in this office: When CDU politician Claudia Nolte became family minister in 1994, "Kohl's girl" was only tender 28 - and, like Kohler, neither married nor mother. Köhler also has tangible partisan political experience, even more than many other ministers: As a fervent Kohl fan, she entered the JU at the age of 14. She has been fighting through the party-internal jungle for 18 years and quickly learned to network and To forge coalitions. However, the doctoral sociologist never held a leading position. And in terms of family policy she is a total greenhorn. Although this is the current Foreign Minister in his new field of activity - in times in which family policy reforms like to set in the maelstrom of other "rescue packages", the inexperience of the new Family Minister could certainly be a problem.
5. Why does not she want to be a feminist?
Köhler wants to be a woman "who unites marriage, children and careers without any part of them suffering and without ever becoming a feminist". That's what she wrote in 1997 in her Abizeitung. This distance to the women's moving ideas, be it from "Emma" or "Rrriot Grrrl" side, holds it to this day: Gender differences are in their opinion not socially, but biologically conditioned. And she rejects a women's quota - although she admits to having benefited as a list candidate herself. In her opinion, women and men should rather be judged on their performance than on their gender. With the colleagues of the FDP she lies - for the most part - on a line. In circumstances such as Norway, where companies have to meet a women's quota of 40 percent on their supervisory boards, one can not hope for the next four years.
6. Will she be just as much a force in the Cabinet as Ursula von der Leyen?
Generation change: Kristina Köhler with her predecessor Ursula von der Leyen
The rhetorical verve and power-political hands would certainly have them. Also the ambition and the talent to leave a mark on the media. What she still lacks is the content: Köhler is simply a blank slate of family and women's politics. Of course, in formulating the new CDU / CSU policy two years ago, it has successfully enforced a more modern fathers image: men are now also being given competence in raising and caring for children.But these are peanuts compared to what von der Leyen as a family minister in the conservative party colleagues boxed through. Köhler can best bring fresh wind into the cabinet when she tries to use her expertise as a sociologist and integration expert with a PhD in sociology: the question of how immigrants and their children can be included in German society will be one of the great German topics of the future , Also in family politics.
7. What does she think about the childcare allowance?
Von der Leyen was considered a vehement opponent of the "Herd Premium". Kohler, on the other hand, always advocated freedom of choice: couples should be able to decide for themselves which model of childcare is best for them. Who wants to keep his child at home, should be supported by the state as well as the users of kindergartens and crèches. Today, with a FDP on the Coalition Bank, which clearly argues for caregiving vouchers, the new minister is more moderate. "This is really a serious conflict of goals," she said in a television interview over the weekend. "We have to think carefully about how to solve this dilemma." We are curious. Perhaps Köhler remembers the numerous studies that she has certainly read as an integration politician and prove that the sooner children from socially difficult milieus can benefit from qualified care facilities, the greater their chances, and later the leap into one to create a better future.
8. What do we expect from her?
Ambitious and power-conscious: Kristina Köhler is not afraid of big tasks
One may certainly be curious about a power-politically gifted young woman, who will work her way into her new area of responsibility with extraordinary willpower and great ambition. It will not be easy to fill in the footsteps of its predecessor, to set its own accents: The great ideological battles in family policy have been beaten in the last four years, the laurels picked. Köhler now has to deal with tedious minor work, take over the big controversial issue of the coalition, the childcare allowance, the ungrateful role of the mediator. Immediately after assuming office, she also announced that she would devote herself primarily to "boys in kindergarten and elementary school" and to the young fathers. We hope that she will not completely forget the women. And give the new one to the debut, pretty purple packed and with the best wishes, "The small difference" by Alice Schwarzer. Maybe there will be time between the important dates.
ChroniquesDuVasteMonde.com: All current topics
