Katja Leikert | |
|---|---|
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| Member of theBundestag | |
| Assumed office 2013 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1975-03-03)3 March 1975 (age 50) |
| Citizenship | German |
| Political party | CDU |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | |
| Occupation | Politician |
Katja Isabel Leikert (néeRüb, born 3 March 1975) is a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU)[1][2] who has been serving asa member of theBundestag (Germany's national parliament) since2013, representing theHanau electoral district. Within theCDU/CSU Bundestag Group, parliamentary colleagues elected her one of the alliance's eleven Bundestag deputy chairpersons in January 2018.[3]
Leikert was born atNeustadt an der Weinstraße, a mid-sized town on the edge of thePfälzerwald, roughly half an hour to the southwest ofLudwigshafen.[1] She grew up in theRhineland, her family ending up inHanau after 1988.[4] In 1994, she passed herschool leaving exams (Abitur) at the Franziskaner-Gymnasium Kreuzburg (secondary school) in nearbyGroßkrotzenburg. After that she took what in some ways amounted to a gap year, working as a teaching assistant at theDuke of York's Royal Military School inDover,England.[2]
In 1995, Leikert embarked on a degree course inPolitical Sciences atFrankfurt university. By 2001 her university studies had also taken in Applied Economics, Statistics andAnglistics. Supported by theErasmus Programme, she spent a semester at theUniversity of Oslo between 1997 and 1998. In July 2003 she won a bursary under theGerman-American Fulbright Program which took her toAmherst inMassachusetts.[2] She was the recipient of a further bursary, this time from theGerman Marshall Fund of the United States and the German military authorities, during May/June 2005.[5] Her doctorate, received from theUniversity of Kaiserslautern ("Technische Universität Kaiserslautern"), followed in 2006.[5] Her dissertation was supervised by Jürgen Wilzewski[6] and concernedUnited States security policy in respect ofIran andNorth Korea; it has subsequently been commercially published.[7]
Leikert joined the centre rightChristian Democratic Union (CDU) in 2012.[5]
Leikert is chair of the Women's Union for her home region ofMain-Kinzig,[8] a co-opted member of the regionalparty executive, a co-opted member of the party executive for the municipality ofBruchköbel and a member of the Bruchköbel Commission for Families, Children, Young people and Old people.[9]
In the2013 national parliamentary election Leikert stood successfully for election to theBundestag, representing theHanau electoral district(Wahlkreis 180). She won 44.3% of the first preference votes. It was, as she herself commented to reporters, an unbelievably rapid progression for someone who had only been a party member for slightly more than eighteen months. "I was certainly helped by the [national] political climate" ("Mir hat eindeutig das politische Klima geholfen").[10] She became a member of theBundestag Health Committee, where she served as her parliamentary group'srapporteur onorgan donation andeHealth. She also became meetings secretary (Schriftführerin) and a deputising member of theCommittee for Families, Women and Young people, and of theCommittee on Foreign Affairs.
In the2017 national parliamentary election Leikert successfully defended her parliamentary seat, albeit with a reduced majority. She won only 35.3% of the first preference votes, but this was still comfortably more than the second placed candidate,Sascha Raabe of theSPD. Both candidates saw reductions in their share of the vote, and populist or fringe parties gained vote share, reflecting wider national and international trends.[11] Parliamentary colleagues elected her one of the CDU/CSU alliance's eleven Bundestag deputy chairpersons in January 2018, first under the leadership ofVolker Kauder and laterRalph Brinkhaus.[12] Her areas of responsibility within the parliamentary group include policy on Europe, political co-ordination and co-operation with like-minded political parties in other parts of Europe, theEuropean People's Party, the CDU's office in Brussels andhuman rights.[3]
In the negotiations to form acoalition government with Social Democrats (SPD) and theChristian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), Leikert was part of her party's delegation.[13]
Since the2021 elections, Leikert has been a member of the Committee for Families, Women and Youth and of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.[14]
In addition to her committee assignments, Leikert has been an alternate member of the German delegation to theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) since 2022. In the Assembly, she serves on the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons and the Sub-Committee on Refugee and Migrant Children and Young People.[15]
In June 2024, Leikert announced that she would not stand in the2025 federal elections but instead pause her career in active politics.[16]
In June 2017, Leikert voted against her parliamentary group's majority and in favor of Germany's introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[18]
In 2019, Leikert joined 14 members of her parliamentary group who, in anopen letter, called for the party to rally around ChancellorAngela Merkel and party chairwomanAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer amid criticism voiced by conservativesFriedrich Merz andRoland Koch.[19]
In April 2020, Leikert co-signed – alongside around 50 other members of her parliamentary group – a letter toPresident of the European CommissionUrsula von der Leyen which called on the European Union to take in children who were living in migrant camps across Greece.[20][21]
Ahead of the2021 national elections, Leikert endorsedArmin Laschet as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed Merkel as chancellor.[22]
Katja Leikert is married with two daughters, born in 2007 and 2010.[4]
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