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Markus Söder | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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.jpg) Söder in 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Minister-President of Bavaria | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 16 March 2018 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Deputy | Ilse Aigner Hubert Aiwanger | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Horst Seehofer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader of the Christian Social Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 19 January 2019 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| General Secretary | Markus Blume Stephan Mayer Martin Huber | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Horst Seehofer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| General Secretary of the Christian Social Union | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| In office 17 November 2003 – 22 October 2007 | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Leader | Edmund Stoiber Erwin Huber | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Thomas Goppel | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Christine Haderthauer | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Member of the Landtag of Bavaria for Nuremberg-East (Nuremberg-West; 1994–2018) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Assumed office 20 October 1994[1] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Preceded by | Heinz Leschanowsky | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Succeeded by | Jochen Kohler | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal details | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | Markus Thomas Theodor Söder (1967-01-05)5 January 1967 (age 58) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Political party | Christian Social Union (since 1983) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Spouse | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Children | 4 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Alma mater | University of Erlangen–Nuremberg | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Military service | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Allegiance |  Germany | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Branch/service |  Bundeswehr | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Years of service | 1986–1987 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Unit |  German Army (Heer) / Transportbataillon 270 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Markus Thomas Theodor Söder (born 5 January 1967) is a German politician from Bavaria, Germany serving asMinister-President of Bavaria since 2018 andleader of theChristian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU) since 2019.
Söder was born in Nuremberg, Germany and is the son of a building contractor.[2] After graduating from theDürer-GymnasiumNuremberg in 1986, Söder completed hiscompulsory year of military service from 1986 to 1987. He then studied law at theUniversity of Erlangen–Nuremberg from 1987, with a scholarship from theKonrad Adenauer Foundation. He passed his first state examination in 1991 and was a research assistant at the department of constitutional, administrative and church law at the same university. In 1998, he was awarded a doctorate in law with a dissertation inlegal history with the titleVon altdeutschen Rechtstraditionen zu einem modernen Gemeindeedikt. Die Entwicklung der Kommunalgesetzgebung im rechtsrheinischen Bayern zwischen 1802 und 1818 (lit. 'From old German legal traditions to a modern municipal edict: The development of municipal legislation in Bavaria on the right bank of the Rhine between 1802 and 1818').[3] He worked as a trainee and then as an editor withBayerischer Rundfunk, a public-service television and radio network, based in Munich, from 1992 to 1994, when he was elected to the Bavarian Parliament and became a full-time politician.
Söder has been a member of theLandtag, the state parliament ofBavaria, since 1994. From 2003 to 2007 he was secretary general of the CSU party, the sister party in Bavaria of theChristian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU). In this capacity, he worked closely with then Minister-President and party chairmanEdmund Stoiber. During his time in office, he was also part of theCDU/CSU team in the negotiations with theSocial Democratic Party of Germany (SPD) on a coalition agreement following the2005 federal elections,[4] which paved the way to the formation ofChancellorAngela Merkel'sfirst cabinet.
Söder has since been member of theBeckstein,Seehofer I andII cabinets. From 2007 to 2008 he was Bavaria's State Minister for Federal and European Affairs, the successor office ofForeign Minister of Bavaria, and from 2008 to 2011 State Minister for Environment and Health. In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the2009 federal elections, Söder was part of the working group on the environment, agriculture and consumer protection, led byIlse Aigner andMichael Kauch, and the working group on health, led byUrsula von der Leyen andPhilipp Rösler.[5]
As finance minister in the state government of Minister-PresidentHorst Seehofer, Söder was also one of the state's representatives at theBundesrat, where he served on the Finance Committee. During his time in office, Söder was put in charge of overseeing the restructuring process of ailing state-backed lenderBayernLB in a bid to win approval for an aid package from theEuropean Commission.[6] In 2014, he pushed BayernLB to sell its Hungarian MKB unit to that country's government, ending an ill-fated investment that had cost it a total of€2 billion ($2.7 billion) in losses over 20 years.[7] In 2015, Söder and his Austrian counterpartHans Jörg Schelling agreed a provisional deal that settled the two governments’ array of legal disputes stemming from the collapse of the Carinthian regional bankHypo Alpe-Adria-Bank International. Under the memorandum of understanding, Austria would pay€1.23 billion to Bavaria. All legal cases relating to the dispute would also be dropped.[8]
Also in 2012, Söder and Minister-PresidentHorst Seehofer filed a lawsuit in theFederal Constitutional Court, asking the judges to back their call for an overhaul of the German system of financial transfers from wealthier states (such as Bavaria) to the country's weaker economies.[9] On Söder's initiative, Bavaria became the first regional government inVolkswagen's home country to take legal action against the carmaker for damages caused by itsemissions-test cheating scandal. At the time, Söder argued that the state's pension fund for civil servants had lost as much as€700,000 ($780,000) as a consequence of the scandal.[10] When Seehofer came under pressure after the CSU had suffered heavy losses in the2017 national elections, he decided to remain party chairman but agreed to hand over leadership of Bavaria to Söder.[11] This was the result of a long-running "internal strife" between Söder and Seehofer.[12]
In March 2018, lawmakers formally elected Söder as new Minister-President of Bavaria to replaceHorst Seehofer, who had become Federal Interior Minister inChancellorAngela Merkel'snew cabinet. He received 99 of the 169 state deputies's votes, with 64 voting against – a better result than Seehofer when he began his final term in 2013.[13]
The followingBavarian State Election (October 2018) yielded the worst result for the CSU (top candidate Markus Söder) since1950 with 37% of votes, a decline of over tenpercentage points compared toSeehofer's last result from 2013. As a consequence, Söder had to form acoalition government with theFreie Wähler as minor partner. In January 2019, CSU delegates elected Söder to replace Seehofer as their leader with an 87.4 percent majority at a party conference. He was the sole candidate.[14]
After the onset of theCOVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Söder was discussed as a possible candidate to succeedAngela Merkel in the2021 German federal election.[15] A May 2020 poll indicated that 53% of Germans favoured him as theCDU/CSU's Chancellor candidate. During the same time, he enjoyed approval ratings of over 90% in Bavaria.[16]
After the election ofArmin Laschet as CDU chairman in January 2021, he and Söder considered themselves the major contenders for the Chancellor candidacy. As the contest intensified in March/April 2021, Söder was backed by the CSU as well as some state and local CDU associations, while Laschet received the support of most of the CDU. The two men failed to come to an agreement by the given deadline of 19 April,[17] leading the federal CDU board to hold an impromptu meeting to break the deadlock. The board voted 31 to 9 in favour of Laschet.[18] After the vote, Söder announced his support for Laschet as Chancellor candidate.[19]
On 21 June 2021, Söder and Laschet jointly presented the joint election manifesto of the two parties, CSU and CDU. In the programme, it is stated that the fight againstpandemics,climate change and the defence of prosperity and freedom are global challenges and that the aim is to create a Germany open to the world, which strives for both modernisation andgreen policies.[20]
In September 2021, Söder was reelected as chair of the CSU, winning 87.6 percent of the vote at a party congress in Nuremberg.[21]
In September 2024, having first expressed his readiness to run as Union's candidate,[22] Söder announced his support forFriedrich Merz asUnion's candidate for Chancellor of Germany for the2025 federal election, afterHendrik Wüst (CDU) had expressed his support for Friedrich Merz.[23]
Söder was a CSU delegate to theFederal Convention for the purpose of electing thePresident of Germany in 1999, 2004, 2009, 2010, 2012, 2017[citation needed] and 2022.[24]
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, Söder was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on health policy, led byUrsula von der Leyen andPhilipp Rösler.
In the negotiations to form aGrand Coalition of the CDU/CSU and the SPD following the2013 federal elections, Söder was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working groups on financial policy and the national budget, led byWolfgang Schäuble andOlaf Scholz, and onbank regulation and theEurozone, led byHerbert Reul andMartin Schulz.[25]
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During theGreek government-debt crisis, Söder was among the most vocal in calling for Greece to leave theEurozone.[29] By 2012, he said in an interview: "Athens must stand as an example that this Eurozone can also show teeth."[30] In early 2018, Söder reiterated his opposition against any expansion of the eurozone to include countries likeBulgaria andRomania, the introduction ofEurobonds, and the creation of a European finance minister post.[31]
In 2012, under Söder's leadership, Bavaria pledged €500,000 ($687,546) in public funding for the Munich-basedInstitute for Contemporary History (IfZ) to produce a critical, annotated version ofAdolf Hitler’sMein Kampf for publication in 2015 when thecopyright expired. Söder said at the time that the publication would aim to "demystify" Hitler's manifesto. By 2013, however, the Bavarian state government ended its funding for the project.[32]
In 2018, Söder's government enacted theKreuzpflicht, an obligation to displaycrosses at the entrance of public buildings. Söder has stated that the crosses are not to be seen as Christian symbols, but as symbols of Bavarian cultural identity.[33] During his campaign for the2018 state elections, Söder appealed to traditionalists while also seeking to enhance Bavaria's high-tech "laptops andLederhosen" reputation with a promise of a new space programme for the state and more high-speed internet access.[34]
Throughout theEuropean migrant crisis, Söder sharply criticised the migrant policies ofAngela Merkel several times. He warned of a "huge security gap"[full citation needed] that remained because the whereabouts of hundreds of thousands of migrants was still unclear and he strongly doubted that the integration of so many people could succeed. In Söder's view, the Germans did not want a multicultural society. Refugees should return to their home countries whenever possible. The dictumWir schaffen das (lit. 'We can do it') of Chancellor Merkel was "not the right signal", instead he suggestedWir haben verstanden (lit. 'We have understood').[35]
During theCOVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Söder was the first Minister-President to announce a lockdown within his federal state.[36] His management raised his popularity and made him a contender for the chancellorship in 2021.[16] During autumn and winter 2021, low vaccination rates in Bavaria generated controversy, with Söder being in favour of mandatory vaccinations.[37][38]
In a July 2020 interview withUlrich Wickert, Söder supportedsame-sex marriage in Germany.[39][40][full citation needed]
In his capacity as Minister-President, Söder has made several foreign trips, including for meetings with PresidentSahle-Work Zewde ofEthiopia (2019),[41][full citation needed] PresidentVladimir Putin of Russia (2020),[42][43]Prime MinisterAndrej Plenković of Croatia (2022),[44]Minister of Foreign AffairsEli Cohen of Israel (2023),[45]Premier Li Qiang of China (2024),[46]Prime MinisterGiorgia Meloni of Italy (2024)[47] andMinister of External Affairs S. Jaishankar of India (2025).[48]
Söder has been married to Karin Baumüller since 1999; Baumüller is one of the owners of Nuremberg-basedBaumüller Group, [de] a manufacturer of electric automation and drive systems.[50] The couple have three children. In addition, Söder has a daughter from an earlier relationship.[51]
Söder is a member of theProtestant Church in Germany and has described himself as "a believer".[2][14][52] He is also known for his extravagant costumes during the carnival season which have includedShrek andMarilyn Monroe.[14]
| Political offices | ||
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| Preceded by | Minister-President of Bavaria 2018–present | Incumbent |
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| Preceded by | Leader of the Christian Social Union 2019–present | Incumbent |
Media from CommonsMinister-presidents of the Free State ofBavaria | ||
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| Revolutionary period (1918–19) |  | |
| Weimar period (1919–33) | ||
| Nazi period (1933–45) | ||
| Modern Bavaria (since 1945) | ||
* Acting | ||
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