Michael Georg Link | |
|---|---|
 Link in 2014 | |
| Minister of State in theFederal Foreign Office withCornelia Pieper | |
| In office 2012–2013 | |
| Preceded by | Werner Hoyer |
| Succeeded by | Michael Roth |
| Member of theBundestag | |
| In office 2005–2013 | |
| In office 2017–2025 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1963-02-06)6 February 1963 (age 62) |
| Political party | Free Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | |
Michael Georg Link (born 6 February 1963) is a German politician of theFree Democratic Party (FDP) who served a member of theBundestag from 2005 to 2013 and again from 2017 to 2025.
In addition to his parliamentary mandate, Link served as First Deputy Foreign Minister (Minister of State for Europe) in thegovernment ofChancellorAngela Merkel from 2012 to 2013 and as the Coordinator of Transatlantic Cooperation at theFederal Foreign Office in thecoalition government ofChancellorOlaf Scholz from 2022 to 2024.[1] He was the Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) from July 2014 to June 2017.
Link was born inHeilbronn,Germany. After graduating from secondary school at theElly-Heuss-Knapp Gymnasium in Heilbronn, Link did his military service in the 364th Tank Battalion of the German Federal Armed Forces inKuelsheim, after which he studied Russian, French, political science, public law and Eastern European history at theUniversity of Augsburg, theUniversity of Lausanne andHeidelberg University.
From 1995 to 1999, Link worked as a research assistant in the German Bundestag (study commission on German Unity), assistant to formerGerman Foreign MinisterKlaus Kinkel, and then as senior advisor to the FDP Parliamentary Group on International affairs.
Link joined the Free Democratic Party (FDP) in 1986. From 1989 to 1995, he served as the Deputy National Chairman and Treasurer of theYoung Liberals and as the representative of the Young Liberals in the Federal Executive of the FDP. In 2003, he became a member of theFDP Executive in the state ofBaden-Württemberg, where he served as treasurer from 2006. Michael Link was elected to the Federal Executive of the FDP in 2010.
From 2005 to 2013, Link served as a member of the German Bundestag. In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the2009 federal elections, he was part of the FDP delegation in the working group on foreign affairs, defense and development policy, led byFranz Josef Jung andWerner Hoyer.
In 2009, Link became spokesperson on European Union Budget and Finance for the FDP Parliamentary Group. From 2009 to 2012, he was the group's spokesperson on European Affairs and Chairman of the Parliamentary Group on International Affairs. From 2009 to 2012, Link was Deputy Chairman of the Bundestag'sCommittee on European Union Affairs. During this time, from 2006 to 2013, he was also a member of theParliamentary Assembly of the OSCE.
On 24 January 2012, Link succeededWerner Hoyer as Minister of State for European Affairs and First Deputy Foreign Minister at theFederal Foreign Office. He was also Commissioner for Franco-German co-operation. In that capacity, he served as ex-officio chairman of the supervisory board of theCenter for International Peace Operations (ZIF) and as member of the board of trustees of the German Foundation for Peace Research.
Link left the Bundestag as well as his office as Minister of State as a result of the change of government after the2013 German federal election.
In May 2014, Link was nominated to become Director of theOffice for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) of theOrganization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) by the Foreign Ministers of the 57 OSCE participating States. He assumed office on 1 July 2014.[2][3]
In his capacity as director, Link notably attended a 2015 court hearing related to the case ofNadiya Savchenko, the Ukrainian Air Force pilot and Member of Parliament charged with complicity in the murder of two Russian journalists nearLuhansk, at the Moscow City Court.[4] He also served as chief election observer during the2016 presidential election in theUnited States of America; the OSCE had sent its biggest team ever to the United States for the election amid charges from candidateDonald Trump that the poll could be “rigged” and concerns by civil rights activists that black voters could face undue obstacles.[5]
Link was succeeded byIngibjörg Sólrún Gísladóttir on 19 July 2017.
Link was re-elected to the German Bundestag in the2017 elections. He subsequently served on the Committee on European Affairs and on the Budget Committee's Sub-Committee on European Affairs. On the Budget Committee, he was his parliamentary group'srapporteur on the budgets of theFederal Foreign Office (2018–2025) and theFederal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (2018–2021). He also served as deputy chairman of the German-French Parliamentary Friendship Group and of the German-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Group.
In addition to his committee assignments, Link served as substitute member of the German delegation to theParliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). At the Assembly, he was a member of the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs. He was also elected deputy chairperson of theAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe group under the leadership of chairRik Daems in 2018.[6]
During his time in office, Link also led the short-termOSCEobserver missions for the2018 presidential elections inRussia[7] and the2023 presidential election in Turkey.[8]
In the negotiations to form a so-calledtraffic light coalition of theSocial Democratic Party (SPD), theGreen Party and the FDP following the2021 federal elections, Link was part of his party's delegation in the working group on foreign policy, defence, development cooperation and human rights, co-chaired byHeiko Maas,Omid Nouripour andAlexander Graf Lambsdorff.[9]
| International | |
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| People | |
