Dietmar Woidke

Dietmar Woidke
Minister President of Brandenburg
Assumed office
2013
Preceded by Matthias Platzeck
Personal details
Born (1961-10-22) October 22, 1961
Forst, then East Germany, now Federal Republic of Germany
Political party Social Democratic Party
Children 1
Religion Protestant

Dietmar Woidke (born 22 October 1961) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany. Since August 2013, Woidke has served as Minister President of Brandenburg.[1] He is married.

Political career

Woidke has been a member of the SPD since 1993. He was elected to the state parliament for the first time 1994 and since that time he is a member of the Parliament. His constituency was initially Spree-Neisse II, he won the right in 1994 and 1999. After the direct mandate he could not win in 2004 and moved just over the national list in the parliament, he entered 2009 in the constituency Spree-Neisse I, which he won directly. In the state elections in 2014 he won the constituency again directly with 49.5 percent of the vote. In parliament he was from 1994 to 1999, deputy chairman of the Committee on Food, Agriculture and Forestry from 1999 to 2004 Member of the Committee on Agriculture, Environment and Regional Planning. At times, he led the lignite Committee of Brandenburg. After he was not considered for the country's cabinet in 2009, he took over from November 2009 until his appointment as interior minister in October 2010, the Office of the Presidents of the SPD parliamentary group and became a member of the Presidium of the State Parliament.

From 1998 to 2003 Woidke was also a city councilor in Forst (Lausitz) and served on the council of the Spree-Neisse district from 1998 until his appointment as minister in 2004. In the local elections in 2008, he was again chosen as a city councilor in the Municipal Assembly of Forst (Lausitz) and as a deputy in the district council Spree-Neisse. He gave these mandates back in October 2010 due to his appointment as interior minister of Brandenburg.

From 13 October 2004 to 21 October 2009 Woidke was Minister for Rural Development, Environment and Consumer Protection in the state of Brandenburg. After the regional elections scheduled for 2009, he was no more government posts to increase the proportion of women in the Cabinet.

Following the resignation of Rainer Speer 23 September 2010, Woidke was appointed by Minister-President Matthias Platzeck on 6 October 2010 as the new interior minister and sworn in before parliament. Woidke's successor as party leader was Ralf Holzschuher. As interior minister Woidke spearheaded responsible for managing modernization in Brandenburg. In this capacity, he was chairman of the committee, referred to TV conversion.

One of the biggest reform projects during his tenure as interior minister was the police reform in Brandenburg. It took aim at a reduction in staff numbers in the Brandenburg police from approximately 8,800 in 2010 to 7,000 by the beginning of 2020. Previously, Brandenburg had two police headquarters, a state police and state unit of input. On 16 December 2010 the Brandenburg State Parliament approved the draft law on the merger of these authorities into a new police headquarters with effect from 1 January 2011.

Minister-President of Brandenburg, 2013–present

Following the resignation of Matthias Platzeck Woidke was elected Minister-President of Brandenburg on 28 August 2013.[2] On August 26, 2013 he had been elected to succeed Platzeck as Chairman of the Brandenburg SPD. At the SPD national convention in November 2013 in Leipzig, Woidke was elected to the party's federal executive committee.

On 3 May 2014, Woidke was elected to be his party's leading candidate for the 2014 state elections. The elections saw about 32 percent of voters backing the SPD, putting Woidke in a position to continue a coalition with the Left party, which won about 18.7 percent of the vote.[3] The SPD also had the choice to enter a coalition with the CDU (23 percent of the vote). However, the SPD and Woidke decided for the continuation of the SPD-Left Party coalition.

On November 5, 2014 Woidke was confirmed by Parliament with 47 votes of the coalition in office.

Role in national politics

As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat, Woidke serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) and the Social Democrats (SPD) following the 2013 federal elections, Woidke was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on energy policy, led by Peter Altmaier and Hannelore Kraft.

Other activities

References

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