Silvia Breher | |
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Deputy Leader of theChristian Democratic Union | |
Assumed office 22 November 2019 | |
Leader | Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer Armin Laschet Friedrich Merz |
Preceded by | Ursula von der Leyen |
Member of theBundestag forCloppenburg – Vechta | |
Assumed office 24 September 2017 | |
Preceded by | Franz-Josef Holzenkamp |
Personal details | |
Born | Silvia Maria Lucke (1973-07-23)23 July 1973 (age 51) Löningen,West Germany (now Germany) |
Political party | Christian Democratic Union |
Children | 3 |
Education | Osnabrück University |
Website | silvia-breher |
Silvia Maria Breher (néeLucke; born 23 July 1973) is a German lawyer and politician of theChristian Democratic Union (CDU) who has been serving as a Member of theBundestag for the constituency ofCloppenburg – Vechta since the2017 federal election. At the CDU conference in November 2019 she was elected as one of the deputy leaders of her party;[1] she succeededUrsula von der Leyen who had been elected to thePresidency of the European Commission.[2]
Breher was born inLöningen and grew up on a farm inLindern.[2] After gaining her Abitur at Copernicus Gymnasium in Löningen she studied law at theOsnabrück University.[3] At the end of 2000 she began practicing as a self-employed lawyer. From 2011 till 2017 she was the Chief Executive of the "Kreislandsvolkverbandes Vechta", the local farmers' union.[3]
Breher is a member of the Christian Democratic Union and of her local CDU organisation inCloppenburg. Between 2014 and 2015 she was a member of the CDU CommissionNachhaltig leben – Lebensqualität bewahren[3]. Since 2018 Breher has been the leader of the Cloppenburg CDU district association[4] and the Löningen CDU association. In March 2019 she was elected leader of the Oldenburg CDU state association[5] and thus member of the State Executive of the CDU in Lower Saxony, under the leadership of chairmanBernd Althusmann.[6]
As successor ofFranz-Josef Holzenkamp,[7] Breher was selected as the CDU candidate for Cloppenburg – Vechta for the2017 federal elections. She subsequently won the election with the highest vote share in the country, 57.7 percent.[8] Her constituency is seen as a CDU safe seat, with her party winning the constituency uninterrupted since 1953. In parliament, she has been a member of the Committee on Food and Agriculture (2018–2021) as well as a member of the Committee on Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (since 2018).[3]
Amid theCOVID-19 pandemic in Germany, Breher co-chaired – alongsideTobias Hans,Hendrik Hoppenstedt,Yvonne Magwas andPaul Ziemiak – the CDU's first ever digital national convention in 2021.[9]
Ahead of the2021 elections, CDU chairmanArmin Laschet included Breher in his eight-membershadow cabinet for the Christian Democrats' campaign.[10]
In September 2017, Breher supportedsame-sex marriages.[11] In April 2020, she co-signed – alongside around 50 other members of her parliamentary group – a letter toPresident of the European CommissionUrsula von der Leyen which called on the European Union to take in children who were living in migrant camps across Greece.[12][13]
For the2021 national elections, Breher endorsedArmin Laschet as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeedChancellorAngela Merkel.[14]