Gerda Hasselfeldt | |
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| President of the German Red Cross | |
| Assumed office 1 December 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Rudolf Seiters |
| First Deputy Leader of theCDU/CSU Group in theBundestag | |
| In office 14 March 2011 – 24 October 2017 | |
| Leader | Volker Kauder |
| Preceded by | Hans-Peter Friedrich |
| Succeeded by | Alexander Dobrindt |
| Vice President of the Bundestag | |
| In office 18 October 2005 – 14 March 2011 | |
| President | Norbert Lammert |
| Preceded by | Norbert Lammert |
| Succeeded by | Eduard Oswald |
| Federal Minister of Health | |
| In office 18 January 1991 – 5 May 1992 | |
| Chancellor | Helmut Kohl |
| Preceded by | Ursula Lehr |
| Succeeded by | Horst Seehofer |
| Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development | |
| In office 21 April 1989 – 18 January 1991 | |
| Chancellor | Helmut Kohl |
| Preceded by | Oscar Schneider |
| Succeeded by | Irmgard Schwaetzer |
| Member of theBundestag forFürstenfeldbruck | |
| In office 2 December 1990 – 24 October 2017 | |
| Preceded by | Eicke Götz |
| Succeeded by | Katrin Staffler |
| Member of theBundestag forBavaria | |
| In office 24 March 1987 – 2 December 1990 | |
| Constituency | List |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1950-07-07)7 July 1950 (age 74) Straubing,Bavaria,Germany |
| Political party | Christian Social Union |
| Spouse | Wolfgang Zeitlmann |
| Children | 2 |
| Alma mater | University of Regensburg Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich |
Gerda Hasselfeldt (born 7 July 1950)[1] is a German politician of theChristian Social Union (CSU) who served as deputy chairperson of theCDU/CSU parliamentary group and chairwoman of the Bundestag group of CSU parliamentarians. Following her departure from active politics, she became President of theGerman Red Cross in 2018.[2]
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An economist by training,[3] Hasselfeldt first became a Member of the GermanBundestag after the1987 federal elections. She was appointedFederal Minister for Regional Planning, Building and Urban Development by then-ChancellorHelmut Kohl in acabinet reshuffle[4] two years later.[5]
From 1991, Hasselfeldt served asFederal Minister for Health. She announced her resignation on 27 April 1992, saying the arrest of her close aide Reinhard Hoppe for allegedly spying for Poland had damaged her health.[6][7] She was succeeded byHorst Seehofer.[8]
Hasselfeldt was financial policy spokeswoman for the CDU/CSU parliamentary group for seven years. In 2002, she became the first deputy chairwoman of the parliamentary group, under the leadership of chairwoman Angela Merkel.[9] During the2005 election campaign, she took charge of agriculture, consumer protection and the environment in Merkel’s nine-member shadow cabinet.[10]
After the federal elections in2005 and 2009, Hasselfeldt was electedVice President of the German Bundestag. She held this office until she was elected to the head of the Bundestag group of CSU parliamentarians in 2011, succeedingHans-Peter Friedrich.[11] From 2011 until 2017, she led the group with her co-chair from the CDU,Volker Kauder.
In that capacity, Hasselfeldt 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. Hasselfeldt also served on the Committee on the Election of Judges, which is in charge of appointing judges to theFederal Constitutional Court of Germany. From 2014, she was also a member of a parliamentary body in charge of appointing judges to the other Highest Courts of Justice, namely theFederal Court of Justice (BGH), theFederal Administrative Court (BVerwG), theFederal Fiscal Court (BFH), theFederal Labour Court (BAG), and theFederal Social Court (BSG).[citation needed]
In the negotiations to form acoalition government following the2013 federal elections, Hasselfeldt was part of the 15-member leadership circle chaired byAngela Merkel,Horst Seehofer andSigmar Gabriel.[citation needed]
In April 2016, Hasselfeldt announced that she would not stand in the2017 federal elections and, instead, resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.[12]
From 2018 until 2019, Hasselfeldt served on the German government's so-called coal commission, which is tasked to develop a masterplan before the end of the year on how tophase-out coal and create a new economic perspective for the country's coal-mining regions.[13] In 2019, she was appointed byFederal Minister for Economic Cooperation and DevelopmentGerd Müller as co-chair (alongsideBärbel Dieckmann) of a commission in charge of drafting recommendations on how to address the causes of displacement and migration.[14]
When members of the Merkel's Christian Democrats in 2012 called on parliament to grant gay couples the same tax benefits as married heterosexuals, Hasselfeldt successfully railed against the idea. "Marriage between a man and a woman must be especially protected because it is fundamentally oriented towards the propagation of life —which isn't the case in homosexual relationships," said Hasselfeldt.[15][16] In June 2017, she voted against Germany's introduction ofsame-sex marriage.[17]
In a 2012 letter toAmazon.com CEOJeff Bezos, Hasselfeldt asked the online retailer to suspend sales of a children's puzzle bearing the image of the crematorium at theDachau concentration camp, calling the product 'a slap in the face' forHolocaust victims. Just 12 miles (19 km) from the Bavarian capital of Munich, Dachau lies within Hasselfeldt's constituency.[18]
In 2014, Hasselfeldt publicly rejected complaints against her party over its slogan "those who commit fraud will be [kicked] out" - a claim that migrant workers could exploitsocial welfare.[19]
A proponent of strict austerity policies during theEurozone crisis, Hasselfeldt helped organize a majority of German lawmakers to approve a series of measures to assist Greece recover from itsgovernment debt crisis.[20] In 2011, she demanded that Italy must do more to convince financial markets of its creditworthiness after a rating downgrade byStandard & Poor's.[21] In 2013, she said Germany was watching France "with a degree of concern" and criticized French PresidentFrançois Hollande for not implementing spending cuts and structural reforms with "sufficient vigor."[22] In a reaction to the European Commission's decision to give France two extra years to cut its deficit in early 2015, Hasselfeldt wrote to the body's presidentJean-Claude Juncker in a letter to say that the timing of the decision – coinciding with the euro zone vehemently urgingGreece to stick to rules set by the Eurogroup despite significant domestic resistance – "should not create the dangerous impression that we want to apply double standards," and that the same rules needed to apply to all countries whatever their size.[23]
CriticizingHerman Van Rompuy's 2012 road map for a eurozone-wide fiscal policy, Hasselfeldt rejected proposals for a "eurozone fiscal capacity", arguing the idea looked to her like a "transfer union."[24]
In the context ofTurkey's largely failed attempted to banmicroblogging serviceTwitter in 2014, Hasselfeldt reaffirmed that "[her] position has always been that Turkey should not be allowed into the EU, and that we are pursuing the principle of privileged partnership."[25] In 2016, Hasselfeldt warned that Britain should not expect to have preferential treatment in case of aBrexit, saying "to me, it is clear: exit means exit. Citizens have to know that with this decision there will be no special treatment for Britain."[26]
In 2014, Hasselfeldt blocked an opposition bid to bringEdward Snowden to Germany to testify, saying that inviting Snowden to Germany would harm relations with the U.S. and probably force the German government to extradite him to face U.S. espionage charges for unveilingNational Security Agency data on surveillance.[27]
Media related toGerda Hasselfeldt at Wikimedia Commons| International | |
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