Gerd Müller | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Director General of United Nations Industrial Development Organization | |
| Assumed office 10 December 2021 | |
| Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development | |
| In office 17 December 2013 – 8 December 2021 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by | Dirk Niebel |
| Succeeded by | Svenja Schulze |
| Parliamentary Secretary of State for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection | |
| In office 22 November 2005 – 17 December 2013 | |
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Minister | Horst Seehofer Ilse Aigner Hans-Peter Friedrich(Acting) |
| Preceded by | Matthias Berninger |
| Succeeded by | Maria Flachsbach |
| Member of theBundestag forOberallgäu | |
| In office 16 October 1994 – 2021 | |
| Preceded by | Ignaz Kiechle |
| Member of the European Parliament forGermany | |
| In office 18 June 1989 – 12 June 1994 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1955-08-25)25 August 1955 (age 70) Krumbach, Bavaria, West Germany |
| Political party | Christian Social Union in Bavaria |
Gerhard "Gerd"Müller (born 25 August 1955) is a German politician of theChristian Social Union in Bavaria, who is currently serving as Director General of theUnited Nations Industrial Development Organization since 2021.[1]
He was GermanFederal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development from 2013 to 2021.[2]
From 1994 until 2021, Müller representedOberallgäu in theBundestag.[3]
Müller was chairman of theJunge Union's Bavarian section from 1987 until 1991. In this position, his calls in favour of capital punishment for drug dealers caused significant controversy.[4][5]
Between1989 and 1994, Müller was aMember of the European Parliament, where he served on theCommittee on Transport and Tourism and on the Joint Assembly of the Agreement between the African, Caribbean and Pacific States and the European Economic Community (ACP-EEC).
From 1994 until 2021, Müller was a member of the German Parliament (Bundestag) forOberallgäu. He served on the committees for foreign and defense policy and was the spokesman on Europe, foreign, and development policy for the CSU group.[6]
From 2005 to 2013, Müller served as Parliamentary State Secretary at theFederal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection under ministersHorst Seehofer (2005–2008) andIlse Aigner (2008–2013) in thefirst andsecond cabinets ofChancellorAngela Merkel. In this capacity, he was responsible for international relations, third-world development projects, and world food aid programs, among other issues.[6] In 2011, he participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany andChina in Berlin; his counterpart in the Chinese government at the time wasHan Changfu.[7]
Following the2013 federal elections, Müller was part of the CDU/CSU team in the negotiations with the SPD on a coalition agreement.
Since 2013, Müller has been Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development in thethird cabinet of ChancellorAngela Merkel; he was succeeded as Parliamentary State Secretary byPeter Bleser.
In February 2014, Müller accompanied GermanPresidentJoachim Gauck on a state visit toIndia – where they met withPrime MinisterManmohan Singh andSonia Gandhi, among others – and toMyanmar.[8]
In October 2014, Müller co-chaired the Berlin Conference on the Syrian Refugee Situation along with Foreign MinisterFrank-Walter Steinmeier and theUN High Commissioner for Refugees,António Guterres.[9] In November 2014, he and German Environment MinisterBarbara Hendricks hosted a conference which raised $10 billion for theGreen Climate Fund’s projects to fight global warming.[10] During his term, the German government pledged €800 million (2016) and €1 billion (2019) in contributions to theGlobal Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.[11]
In August 2015, Müller was part of Chancellor Merkel’s delegation to the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany andBrazil inBrasília.[12] In January 2016, he participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany andTurkey in Berlin.[13]
In September 2020, Müller announced that he would not stand in the2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[14]
While still serving as minister, the German government nominated Müller as its candidate for Director General of theUnited Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO). In July 2021, he was selected overBernardo Calzadilla Sarmiento (Bolivia) andArkebe Oqubay (Ethiopia) by the organization's Industrial Development Board.[15] This selection was confirmed by UNIDO's 19th General Conference in late 2021. Müller took up the position in December 2021.[16]
In April 2014, Müller became the first member of ChancellorAngela Merkel's cabinet to publicly confront world football's governing bodyFIFA over its allocation of the2022 FIFA World Cup toQatar, criticizing that the choice contradicted global efforts to tackleclimate change and that human rights breaches on the country's stadium construction sites even extended to "slave labor."[17] Later that year, he publicly accused Qatar of fundingIslamic State (IS) militants, arguing that the country was the "keyword" when it comes to IS financing.[18]
In June 2017, Müller voted against Germany’s introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[19][3]
Müller is strongly in favor of extending subsidizing German agriculture for export, which he hopes will lessen the flow of refugees coming toEurope.[5]
Müller has in the past voted in favor of German participation inUnited Nations peacekeeping missions as well as in United Nations-mandated European Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, such as inSomalia – bothOperation Atalanta andEUTM Somalia (2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2018),Darfur/Sudan (2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018),South Sudan (2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016 and 2017),Mali (2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018), theCentral African Republic (2014), andLiberia (2015). He abstained from the vote on extending the mandate for Mali in 2016.
During an official visit in 2019, Müller described the slaughter of some 65,000Herero and 10,000Nama tribespeople inNamibia between 1904 and 1908 as genocide, one of the most senior government members to use the term while compensation claims were under discussion.[20]
Müller isRoman Catholic[27] and married to Gertie Müller-Hoorens,[28] with whom he has two children.[27]
Media related toGerd Müller (politician) at Wikimedia Commons
