{"id":149304,"date":"2025-04-28T14:36:38","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T10:36:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/?p=149304"},"modified":"2025-04-28T15:00:21","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T11:00:21","slug":"german-government-to-have-security-focused-tone-names-of-first-ministers-announced","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/politics\/149304\/","title":{"rendered":"German government to have security-focused tone: Names of first ministers announced"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is handing over key ministries to Christian Democratic Union (CDU) veterans and businessmen, setting the tone for a more conservative, security-focused government, Politico<\/a> writes.<\/p>\n

Merz on Monday released his first batch of Cabinet picks, highlighting clear themes: experience, party loyalty and business-minded leadership.<\/p>\n

At the Foreign Ministry, Johann Wadephul, a seasoned defense and foreign policy expert, is set to lead Germany’s diplomatic efforts at a time of rising global tensions. In a major economic move, Katherina Reiche — a former energy executive and ex-lawmaker — will head the Ministry for Economy and Energy, overseeing Germany’s reindustrialization plans.<\/p>\n

Patrick Schnieder, a veteran transport policymaker, takes over the Ministry of Transport, while Karin Prien, who previously led education policy in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein, will run the Ministry for Education. Nina Warken, a Bundestag legal specialist, is tapped to lead the Health Ministry.<\/p>\n

Merz has also created a new Ministry for Digitalization, choosing physicist and tech executive Karsten Wildberger to push overdue digital reforms in government.<\/p>\n

Cultural and media affairs will be steered by Wolfram Weimer, a well-known journalist and publisher. Christiane Schenderlein, a Bundestag member with experience in cultural policy, becomes state minister for sport and volunteer engagement.<\/p>\n

Serap Güler joins the Foreign Ministry as state minister for international cooperation, while Gunther Krichbaum, a veteran on EU policy, takes the role of state minister for European affairs.<\/p>\n

Finally, Thorsten Frei — a key Merz ally and former CDU\/CSU parliamentary manager — will become head of the Chancellery, a powerful role akin to a chief of staff. Frei will be responsible for coordinating government operations and ensuring Cabinet discipline, a critical post as Merz seeks to push through his ambitious domestic and security agenda.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is handing over key ministries to Christian Democratic Union (CDU) veterans and businessmen, setting the tone for a more conservative, security-focused government, Politico writes. Merz on Monday released his first batch of Cabinet picks, highlighting clear themes: experience, party loyalty and business-minded leadership. At the Foreign Ministry, Johann Wadephul, a seasoned […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":149299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35,43,98,57],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics","category-world","category-other-en","category-top-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149304"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149304\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/abcmedia.am\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}