Thomas Strobl | |
|---|---|
 Strobl in 2025 | |
| Deputy Minister President of Baden-Württemberg | |
| Assumed office 12 May 2016 | |
| Prime Minister | Winfried Kretschmann |
| Preceded by | Nils Schmid |
| Minister of the Interior, Digitalisation and Migration of Baden-Württemberg | |
| Assumed office 12 May 2016 | |
| Prime Minister | Winfried Kretschmann |
| Preceded by | Reinhold Gall |
| Leader of theChristian Democratic Union inBaden-Württemberg | |
| Assumed office 23 July 2011 | |
| Preceded by | Stefan Mappus |
| Member of the Bundestag | |
| In office 27 September 1998 – 12 May 2016 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1960-03-17)17 March 1960 (age 65) |
| Political party | CDU |
| Spouse | Christine Schäuble |
| Alma mater | Heidelberg University |
| Occupation | Lawyer |
Thomas Strobl (born 17 March 1960) is a German politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as Deputy Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg since 2016 .
From 1998 until 2016 Strobl was a member of the GermanBundestag. In 2011 he was elected chairman of theCDU Baden-Württemberg, succeedingStefan Mappus. In 2012 he was elected one of five vice federal chairmen of the CDU party in Germany.[1]
Strobl grew up inHeilbronn. After high school diploma he studied law atHeidelberg University. In 1985 he completed the first, and after postgraduate studies inSpeyer in 1988 the second state examination in Heidelberg.[1] He then was a research fellow at Heidelberg University and from 1992 to 1996 a Parliamentary Advisor at theLandtag of Baden-Württemberg. From 1996 he has worked as a lawyer. In 2001, he co-founded a law firm withAlexander Throm.
Strobl first became of a Member of the GermanBundestag in the1998 national elections. From 1998 to 2009, he served on the Committee for the Scrutiny of Elections, Immunity and the Rules of Procedure, which he chaired from 2005. Between 2009 and 2013, he was also a member of the parliament'sCouncil of Elders, which – among other duties – determines daily legislative agenda items and assigning committee chairpersons based on party representation. From 2009, he also led the Bundestag group of CDU parliamentarians fromBaden-Württemberg, one of the largest delegations within the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.
At state level, Strobl served as Secretary General of the CDU Baden-Württemberg from 2005 to 2011, under party chairmenGünther Oettinger (2005-2009) andStefan Mappus (2009-2011). In this capacity, he participated in the coalition talks with both the liberalFree Democratic Party and the Green Party following the2006 state elections and managed the CDU election campaign in2011.
Since 2011, Strobl has been chairman of the CDU in the state of Baden-Württemberg. In addition, he was elected vice chairman of the CDU in 2012 and has since been serving in the party's national leadership under successive chairwomenAngela Merkel (2012-2018) andAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (since 2018).[1]
In the negotiations to form aGrand Coalition of the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the BavarianCSU) and theSocial Democrats (SPD) following the2013 federal elections, Strobl was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on internal and legal affairs, led byHans-Peter Friedrich andThomas Oppermann. He was later appointed deputy chairperson of theCDU/CSU parliamentary group in charge of internal and legal affairs. In this capacity, he was part of the group's leadership around chairpersonVolker Kauder. In addition to his committee assignments, Strobl was also a member of the German-Maltese Parliamentary Friendship Group.
In December 2015, Strobl presided over the CDU's 2015 national convention inKarlsruhe.[2]
Ahead of the2016 state elections, Strobl lost againstGuido Wolf in a party-wide vote on who should run for the office of Minister-President of Baden-Württemberg.[3] Strobl did not run for a state parliament seat in 2016.
After the elections, Strobl – alongsideGuido Wolf – led the exploratory talks with theAlliance '90/The Greens party ofMinister-PresidentWinfried Kretschmann before starting formal coalition talks.[4] Since May 2016, he has been serving as Deputy Minister-President and State Minister of the Interior, Digitisation and Migration in acoalition government of Greens and Christian Democrats in Baden-Württemberg (Cabinet Kretschmann II).[5] As one of Baden-Württemberg's representatives at theBundesrat, Strobl is a member of the Committee on Internal Affairs and of the German delegation to theNATO Parliamentary Assembly.
In the – unsuccessful – negotiations to form acoalition government with theChristian Social Union in Bavaria (CSU), theFree Democratic Party (FDP) and theGreen Party following the2017 national elections, Strobl was part of the 19-member delegation of the CDU.
Following his party's result in the2019 European elections, Strobl announced his intention to not lead the CDU campaign to unseat incumbent Minister-President Kretschmann inBaden-Württemberg's 2021 state elections; instead,Susanne Eisenmann was nominated as Kretschmann's challenger in the2021 Baden-Württemberg state election.[6] In late 2019, he also announced his candidacy in Landtagswahlkreis Heilbronn for a seat in the state parliament.[7] Both Eisenmann and Strobl, who in 2016 were appointed ministers without having run for parliament seats, failed to get elected to the parliament in 2021. While Eisenmann resigned from politics, Strobl remained minister.
Following the CDU's and his own performance in the 2021 state elections, Strobl only received 66.5 percent of his party delegates’ votes in his re-election as chair.[8] The new state level CDU leader isManuel Hagel.
After the Green Party won Baden-Württemberg's state capitalStuttgart in 2012, Strobl publicly claimed that his party is "no longer in touch with the lifestyle of people in the cities."[9]
In 2016, Strobl called for a tightening of Germanasylum rules, saying asylum-seekers should only be eligible for permanent residence in Germany after five years, rather than the current three.[10]
Ahead of the Christian Democrats’leadership election, Strobl publicly endorsed in 2020Friedrich Merz to succeedAnnegret Kramp-Karrenbauer as the party's chair;[11] Merz eventually lost againstArmin Laschet. For the2021 national elections, Strobl later supported Laschet as the party's candidate to succeedChancellorAngela Merkel.[12]
The inspector of theBaden-Württemberg Police Andreas Renner is said to have explained his ideas about sexual practices to a female chief commissioner in a video chat in 2021 and offered her to support her career in exchange forsexual services. Disciplinary and investigation proceedings were then initiated against the man for sexual harassment and he was forbidden to conduct official business.
Renner's lawyer wrote a letter to his chef minister Thomas Strobl. Strobl passed the letter on to a journalist. As a result, the public prosecutor's office investigated the suspicion of instigating prohibited communications about court hearings (Section 353d No. 3, Section 26 of the Criminal Code (StGB)) against Strobl.[13]
In May 2022, the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office initiated investigations against Strobl on suspicion of incitement to share prohibited communications about court hearings.[16]
Since 1996, Strobl has been married to media manager Christine Schäuble, the oldest daughter ofWolfgang Schäuble.[3]
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