Reiner Haseloff | |
|---|---|
 Haseloff in 2025 | |
| Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt | |
| In office 19 April 2011 – 28 January 2026 | |
| Deputy | Jens Bullerjahn Petra Grimm-Benne Armin Willingmann Lydia Hüskens |
| Preceded by | Wolfgang Böhmer |
| Succeeded by | Sven Schulze |
| President of theBundesrat | |
| In office 1 November 2020 – 31 October 2021 | |
| First Vice President | Dietmar Woidke |
| Preceded by | Dietmar Woidke |
| Succeeded by | Bodo Ramelow |
| Minister for Economics and Labour ofSaxony-Anhalt | |
| In office 24 April 2006 – 19 April 2011 | |
| Minister-President | Wolfgang Böhmer |
| Preceded by | Horst Rehberger |
| Succeeded by | Birgitta Wolff |
| Member of the Landtag of Saxony-Anhalt forWittenberg (Dessau-Roßlau-Wittenberg; 2011–2021) | |
| Assumed office 19 April 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Kurt Brumme |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Reiner Erich Haseloff (1954-02-19)19 February 1954 (age 71) |
| Party | Christian Democratic Union(1990–) |
| Other political affiliations | Christian Democratic Union (East)(1976–1990) |
| Alma mater | Dresden University of Technology Humboldt University of Berlin (Dipl.,PhD) |
| Website | Official website |
Reiner Erich Haseloff[1] (born 19 February 1954) is a German politician who served as theMinister-President of Saxony-Anhalt from 2011 to 2026.[2][3] He served a one-year term asPresident of the Bundesrat from 2020 to 2021.[4] From 2022 to 2026, he was thelongest-serving minister-president of the German states.
Reiner Haseloff joined the then bloc partyCDU of the GDR in 1976. He has been a member of the state executive of the CDU Saxony-Anhalt since 1990 and was deputy district administrator of the Wittenberg district from 1990 to 1992.
From 2004 to 2012, Haseloff was deputy state chairman of the CDU. Since December 2008 he has been a member of the CDU federal executive committee.From 2002 to 2006, Haseloff served as State Secretary at the State Ministry for Economic Affairs and Labour under ministerHorst Rehberger in the first cabinet of Minister PresidentWolfgang Böhmer. In 2006, he succeeded Rehberger and became a member of Böhmer's second cabinet.
In the negotiations to form acoalition government of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the BavarianCSU) and theFree Democratic Party (FDP) following the2009 federal elections, Haseloff was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on labour and social affairs, led byRonald Pofalla andDirk Niebel.
When Böhmer announced his resignation ahead of the2011 state elections, Haseloff was the candidate of the CDU. He had already gained national attention by proposing that unemployed people who had no job prospects work for the public interest, a plan that since then has been adopted in a number of federal states.[5]
From 2014 and 2016, Haseloff was one of the members of Germany's temporary National Commission on the Disposal of Radioactive Waste.[6]
During theEuropean migrant crisis, in November 2015, Haseloff kept distance toAngela Merkel by proposing an "upper limit" (German:Obergrenze) of refugees as theCSU party did, for the state as well as on federal level.[7] At the same time he didn't join a proposal of fellow CDU 2016 state election campaignersJulia Klöckner andGuido Wolf for flexible daily quotas for refugee inflows into Germany, which was a step beyond Merkel's "open-doors" policy but not as far as the CSU party, reportedly in deference to hisSPD coalition partner in the state government. Haseloff said, the chancellor "elaborately fought for a European solution" in the refugee crisis, but this was "out of sight".[8]
In the2016 state elections, Haseloff was able to keep power in Saxony-Anhalt, with his CDU taking approximately 29 percent of the vote[9] and thereby remaining the largest party in the state parliament,[10] but faced a strongAfD right wing opposition. Haseloff stated after the elections that "the actual rise, which came for the AfD in the polls has a city name:It's Cologne."[11] He explained that the rise of the votes for his party in the state came because "we at least did nothing wrong as a Christian Democratic Union here in Saxony-Anhalt."[11] Following the elections, Saxony-Anhalt became the first of the German states to be governed by a triple coalition of CDU, SPD and the Green Party. On 25 April 2016, Haseloff was re-elected in parliament as minister president of the state during a second ballot, where he managed to gain one vote more than the coalition majority.[12]
As one of the state's representatives at theBundesrat, Haseloff serves on the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
Within his party, Haseloff has been part of the CDU's national leadership team around successive chairwomenAngela Merkel (2008–2018) andAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (2018–2021) since 2008. He served as a CDU delegate to theFederal Convention for the purpose of electing thePresident of Germany in 2009, 2010, 2012,2017 and2022.[13]
In the negotiations to form a so-calledGrand Coalition underChancellor Merkel following the2013 federal elections, Haseloff was part of the CDU/CSU delegation's leadership team. TheChristian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) only runs in that state while the CDU is absent there, with both parties cooperating on national level since the 1940s. Following the2017 national elections, Haseloff was part of the 19-member delegation of the CDU in the – unsuccessful – negotiations to form aJamaica coalition (after the black, yellow, green flag) with theFree Democratic Party (FDP) and theGreen Party.
Since 2022, Haseloff has been chairing an internal CDU working group in charge of drafting recommendation on reforming Germany’spublic broadcasting.[14]
Ahead of the2021 national elections, Haseloff endorsedMarkus Söder as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeedChancellorAngela Merkel.[18]
Holy See:Knight of theOrder of the Holy Sepulchre (2003)
Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (2023)[19]
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister President of Saxony-Anhalt 2011–present | Incumbent |
| Preceded by | President of the Bundesrat 2020–2021 | Succeeded by |
| Soviet administration / DDR (1945–90) |
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| Federal Republic of Germany (since 1990) | ||
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