Maria Flachsbarth | |
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| Member of theBundestag | |
| In office 2002–2021 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1963-06-02)2 June 1963 (age 62) |
| Citizenship | German |
| Political party | CDU |
Maria Franziska Flachsbarth (néeFüßmann; born 2 June 1963) is a Germanveterinarian and politician of theChristian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) who served asParliamentary State Secretary in theFederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development in thefourthcoalition government ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. Since 2011, she has also served as the president of theGerman Catholic Women's Association.
Flachsbarth was born 1963 inLünen, and studiedveterinary medicine at theUniversity of Veterinary Medicine Hanover. On a scholarship of theKonrad Adenauer Foundation, she received herPhD in 1990, with a thesis oncats.
Flachsbarth joined theYoung Union in 1975, before also becoming a member of the CDU in 1991.
Flachsbarth first became a member of the GermanBundestag in the2002 elections, representing theHanover Land ll constituency. From 2002 until 2013, she served on the Committee on the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building, and Nuclear Safety. In this capacity, she was her parliamentary group'srapporteur on the management ofhigh-level nuclear waste at theAsse II mine, among others.[1] She also joined the parliament'sCouncil of Elders, which – among other duties – determines daily legislative agenda items and assigns committee chairperson, based on party representation.
Ahead of the2005 state elections inSchleswig-Holstein,Peter Harry Carstensen included Flachsbarth in hisshadow cabinet for the Christian Democrats' campaign to unseat incumbentHeide Simonis as Minister-President.[2] During the campaign, Flachsbarth served as shadow minister for social affairs.
Within herCDU/CSU parliamentary group, Flachsbarth co-ordinated relations with churches and religious communities from 2009 until 2013.
In the negotiations to form aGrand Coalition ofChancellorAngela Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU, together with the BavarianCSU) and theSocial Democrats (SPD) following the2013 federal elections, Flachsbarth was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on energy policy, led byPeter Altmaier andHannelore Kraft. From 2014 to 2018, Flachsbarth served as Parliamentary State Secretary at theFederal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, under the leadership of ministerChristian Schmidt, in Merkel'sthird cabinet. During that time, she unsuccessfully ran for the office of president of theCentral Committee of German Catholics (ZdK) in 2015; the post instead went to Thomas Sternberg.[3]
In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the2017 federal elections, Flachsbarth was part of the working group on agriculture, led byJulia Klöckner,Christian Schmidt, andAnke Rehlinger. With the formation of thefourthGrand Coalition under Merkel, in 2018, Flachsbarth became – alongsideNorbert Barthle – one of two Parliamentary State Secretaries at the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, this time under the leadership of ministerGerd Müller.
In May 2020, Flachsbarth announced that she would not stand in the2021 federal elections, but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[4]
Since 2006, Flachsbarth has been the deputy chairwoman of the CDU in Lower Saxony, under the leadership of successive chairmenChristian Wulff (2006-2008),David McAllister (2008-2016), andBernd Althusmann (since 2016).
Following the2017 state elections in Lower Saxony, Flachsbarth was part of the CDU team in the negotiations withStephan Weil'sSocial Democrats on a coalition agreement.[5]
In June 2017, Flachsbarth voted against Germany's introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[12][13]
In 2019, Flachsbarth joined 14 members of her parliamentary group who, in an open letter, called for the party to rally around Merkel and party chairwomanAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, amid criticism voiced by conservativesFriedrich Merz andRoland Koch.[14]
Flachsbarth is married, and has two children.[15]
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