Volker Bouffier | |
---|---|
Minister-President of Hesse | |
In office 31 August 2010 –31 May 2022 | |
Deputy | Jörg-Uwe Hahn Tarek Al-Wazir |
Preceded by | Roland Koch |
Succeeded by | Boris Rhein |
Leader of the Christian Democratic Union in Hessen | |
Assumed office 12 July 2010 | |
Deputy | Eva Kühne-Hörmann |
Preceded by | Roland Koch |
Deputy Leader of the Christian Democratic Union | |
In office 15 November 2010 –22 January 2022 | |
Leader | Angela Merkel Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Armin Laschet |
Preceded by | Roland Koch |
Succeeded by | Michael Kretschmer |
President of the Bundesrat | |
In office 1 November 2014 –31 October 2015 | |
Deputy | Stephan Weil |
Preceded by | Stephan Weil |
Succeeded by | Stanislaw Tillich |
Hessian Minister of the Interior and Sport | |
In office 7 April 1999 –31 August 2010 | |
Minister-President | Roland Koch |
Preceded by | Gerhard Bökel |
Succeeded by | Boris Rhein |
Hessian State Secretary for Justice | |
In office 24 April 1987 –5 April 1991 | |
Minister-President | Walter Wallmann |
Preceded by | Hans Joachim Suchan |
Succeeded by | Dieter Schmidt |
Member of the Landtag of Hesse for Giessen II | |
Assumed office 5 April 1999 | |
Preceded by | Karl Starzacher |
In office 5 April 1991 – 5 April 1999 | |
Constituency | CDU List |
In office 1 December 1982 –17 April 1987 | |
Constituency | CDU List |
Personal details | |
Born | Giessen,Hessen,West Germany | 18 December 1951
Political party | CDU |
Volker Bouffier (born 18 December 1951) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister President of the German state of Hessen from 31 August 2010 to 31 May 2022. From 1 November 2014 until 31 October 2015 he was President of the Bundesrat and ex officio deputy to the President of Germany.
Bouffier has been serving as the chairman of the CDU in Hesse since July 2010. From 1999 to 2010,he was State Minister of Interior and Sports in of Hessen. Bouffier is a lawyer by profession. Because of his participation in state government,he is the longest serving Member of the Bundesrat,representing Hessen since 1999.
Bouffier grew up in Giessen. His father Robert Bouffier (1920–1999) was a lawyer and CDU local politician in Giessen;his grandfather Robert Ferdinand August Bouffier (1883–1971) moved from Strasbourg to Giessen in 1906,where he later became a CDU politician. [1] His paternal family is of French Huguenot ancestry. [2]
He studied law at the University of Giessen and completed his studies in 1977. From 1975 to 1978 he was a research assistant in public law at the University of Giessen,and in 1978 he was called to the bar. He practiced law for many years in addition to his political activities and is currently an inactive partner in the law firm Bouffier &Wolf. [3]
In 2024 he took part in a musical project called "Ein offenes Herz" by electronic musician Thomas Albertsen (Globotom) reciting quotes from Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe's novel "The Sorrows of Young Werther".
Bouffier was leader of the Hessian Young Union,the youth organisation of the CDU,from 1978 to 1984.
Bouffier was first elected to the Parliament of the State of Hesse in 1982. He served as State Minister of the Interior and Sports in the government of Minister-President Roland Koch from 1999 to 2010. [4]
When Koch announced his withdrawal from the political scene and resigned in August 2010, [5] he nominated Bouffier as his successor to lead the center-right CDU-FDP government that was formed after the 2009 state elections.
In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2009 federal elections,Bouffier was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on internal and legal affairs,led by Wolfgang Schäuble and Sabine Leutheusser-Schnarrenberger.
In 2010,Bouffier was elected vice chairman of the CDU and has since been serving in the party's national leadership under successive chairwomen Angela Merkel (2012–2018) and Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (since 2018). On 7 June 2011,he was among the guests invited to the state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama in honor of Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House. [6]
Under Bouffier's leadership,Hesse joined forces with Bavaria in early 2013 to launch a constitutional challenge to the Germany's system of tax transfers in order to stop subsidising spending in the city of Berlin,the national capital,and all the poorer states. At the time,Hesse was the third largest net contributor,with an annual transfer of almost €1.3 billion. [7]
On 8 February 2013,Bouffier agreed to the proposal of the President Joachim Gauck to hold the state elections on the same day as Germany's federal elections. When the official result gave no major parties and their traditional coalition partners a clear majority in the parliament,Bouffier decided to break ranks with the rest of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative party and seek a coalition government with the Greens rather than the Social Democrats (SPD). [8] He thereby created only the second CDU-Green coalition to govern a German state,after the previous government of Hamburg. On the federal level,he was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired by Merkel,Horst Seehofer and Sigmar Gabriel in the negotiations to form a coalition government.
As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat,Germany's upper house of parliament,Bouffier is a member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Committee on Defence. In October 2015,while he held the rotating presidency of the Bundesrat,he hosted the three-day festivities for the 25th anniversary of the reunification of the former East and West German states. [9]
On 25 February 2022,Bouffier announced his resignation from the post of minister-president which will become effective on 31 May. [10]
Ahead of the 2021 Christian Democratic Union of Germany leadership election,Bouffier publicly opposed Friedrich Merz as candidate to succeed Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party's chair. [20] Instead,he publicly endorsed Armin Laschet's candidacy. [21]
German politicians from across the political spectrum criticized Deutsche Bank co-CEO Jürgen Fitschen in December 2012 following reports he had telephoned Bouffier to complain about a raid on the bank's Twin Towers in Frankfurt –even though Bouffier's office was not directly responsible for overseeing the action. [22]
During the trial of Beate Zschäpe for the NSU murders,the BfV agent Andreas Temme who was at the scene of one of the murders,yet claimed not to have noticed it,was accused by the prosecution of having sympathies towards Neo-Nazism himself,thus casting doubt on his testimony. Bouffier,then interior minister of Hesse,shielded Temme from further investigations,citing protection of undercover agents. [23] [24]
Bouffier is married to his wife Ursula,a former radiology assistant. [25] In early 2019,he underwent treatment for skin cancer. [26] In 2024,he took part in a musical project called “Ein offenes Herz”by electronic musician Thomas Albertsen (Globotom),reciting quotes from Johann Wolfgang v. Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther . [27]
Kurt Hans Biedenkopf was a German jurist,academic teacher and politician of the Christian-Democratic Union (CDU) party. He was rector of the Ruhr University Bochum.
Roland Koch is a German jurist and former conservative politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). He was the 7th Minister President of Hesse from 7 April 1999,immediately becoming the 53rd President of the Bundesrat,completing the term begun by his predecessor as Minister President,Hans Eichel,until his resignation on 31 August 2010. During his time in office,Koch was widely regarded as one of Chancellor Angela Merkel's main rivals within the CDU.
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Tarek Mohammed Al-Wazir is a German politician of Alliance '90/The Greens who served as deputy to the Hessian Minister-President,and Hessian Minister of Economics,Energy,Transport and Regional Development from 2014 to 2024. He is a member of the Landtag of Hesse and was co-chair of the Hessian Green Party.
Reiner Haseloff is a German politician who serves as the Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt. On 9 October 2020,he was elected President of the Bundesrat. His one-year term started on 1 November 2020.
The 2013 Hessian state election was held on 22 September 2013 to elect the members of the Landtag of Hesse. The election was held on the same day as the 2013 federal election. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free Democratic Party (FDP) led by Minister-President Volker Bouffier was defeated. The FDP suffered major losses,exceeding the 5% electoral threshold by under 1,000 votes. After the election,the CDU formed a coalition with The Greens,and Bouffier continued in office.
Michael Helmut Roth is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 27 September 1998.
Nicola Beer is a German lawyer and politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a vice president of the European Investment Bank since 2024,under the leadership of president Nadia Calviño.
Peter Michael Tauber is a former German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the Bundestag from 2009 to 2021. From 16 December 2013 to 26 February 2018 he served as Secretary General of the CDU under the leadership of its chairwoman Angela Merkel.
Peter Beuth is a German politician. He is a member of the CDU party. Beuth is an MP in the Landtag,the parliament of Hesse. Since 18 January 2014 he is State Minister of the Interior and for Sports in the government of Minister-President Volker Bouffier of Hesse. Before that he was Secretary General of CDU Hesse since 14 March 2009.
Thomas Strobl is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Deputy Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2016.
Michael Kretschmer is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Minister President of Saxony since December 2017. Since 2022,he has been one of four deputy chairs of the CDU,under the leadership of chairman Friedrich Merz.
Helge Reinhold Braun is a German physician and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). Between 2018 and 2021,he served as Head of the Chancellery and Federal Minister for Special Affairs in the fourth coalition government of Chancellor Angela Merkel. He was the Parliamentary Secretary of State for Bureaucracy Reduction and Federal-State Relations at the Chancellery between 2013 and 2018.
Thomas Schäfer was a German lawyer and politician for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). He was Minister of Finance of Hesse between 2010 and 2020.
Michael Boddenberg is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Minister of Finance of Hesse since 3 April 2020.
Hendrik Josef Wüst is a German politician serving as Minister-President of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2021. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). In October 2021,he succeeded Armin Laschet as state chairman of his party. Under Wüst's leadership,his party won the highest vote share in the 2022 North Rhine-Westphalia state election.
The Second Bouffier cabinet was the state government of Hesse between 2014 and 2019,sworn in on 18 January 2014 after Volker Bouffier was elected as Minister-President of Hesse by the members of the Landtag of Hesse. It was the 21st Cabinet of Hesse.
Boris Rhein is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Minister-President of Hesse since 2022. He has been active in the politics of Hesse since the late 1990s. After being elected to the Landtag of Hesse in 1999,he served as the state's Minister for the Interior from 2010 until 2014 and as the Minister for Science and Art from 2014 to 2019. On 31 May 2022,he was elected to succeed Volker Bouffier as the Minister-President of Hesse. He led the CDU to a victory in the 2023 Hessian state election.
Yaşar Bilgin is a Turkish-born German politician and cardiologist,holding a professorship and a doctorate in this field. He has been a member of the Christian Democratic Union since 2002 and has since been a member of the executive committee of the CDU Hessen. He is also the President of the Turkish-German Health Foundation.