Friedrich Merz’s Christian Democratic Union has named Wolfram Weimer, a conservative journalist who based a political journal and publishing firm, to function the tradition minister in a brand new German authorities anticipated to take workplace subsequent week.
Merz’s Christian Democrats and their Bavarian sister occasion, the Christian Social Union, received the biggest share of the votes in February’s election however not sufficient to rule alone. They’ve shaped a coalition with the Social Democrats; the Bundestag, or decrease home of parliament, is because of verify Merz as chancellor on 6 Might.
The appointment of a German tradition minister who isn’t a profession politician isn’t an exception: whereas the incumbent, Claudia Roth, arrived within the submit with a wealth of political expertise, earlier post-holders have included publishers, writers and a thinker.
However commentators have criticised the selection of Weimer due to his lack of arts background: an opinion piece within the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung described him as “the flawed man within the flawed place”, including, “it could be speculative to imagine that Weimer has an curiosity in artwork or mental pursuits. They’ve hardly performed a job in his work to this point.”
Whereas Roth espoused progressive causes corresponding to feminism and homosexual rights, Weimer, who’s 60, helps conservative values and free-market financial insurance policies. A daily visitor on German TV discuss exhibits, he has written a “conservative manifesto” in reward of bourgeois values, in addition to books criticising the “super-nanny state” and predicting a revival of faith.
Born within the German state of Hesse, Weimer grew up in Portugal and served because the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung’s correspondent in Madrid within the Nineties. He’s a former editor-in-chief of the conservative German each day newspaper Die Welt and of the information journal Focus. He additionally based the political journal Cicero and, collectively together with his spouse Christiane Götz-Weimer, arrange a publishing firm, Weimer Media Group.
