Federal Foreign Minister Steinmeier turns 60
Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier is turning 60. He is the most popular politician in the country.
Amicable, fair, but also strong-willed: when friends and colleagues describe Frank-Walter Steinmeier, they appear respectful of Germany’s Federal Foreign Minister, with many also appreciative. The Social Democrat Party’s man from North Rhine-Westphalia is also held in high esteem by the German people: according to the “ARD-Deutschlandtrend” survey, Steinmeier was Germany’s most popular politician in October 2015.
It may be his role as a mediator all over the world that brings the Foreign Minister such regard. In 2015 he acted as the honest broker for the nuclear treaty with Iran, an agreement that represented the culmination of ten years of tough negotiations.
Second time round as Foreign Minister
Steinmeier was born on 5 January 1956 in North Rhine-Westphalia. While still at school he joined the Young Socialists, the youth wing of the Social Democrats. The year 1990, which saw German Unity, was also something of a turning point for Steinmeier, as he explains on his website: “The Social Democratic/Green dawn in Lower Saxony drew me to Hanover. I was inspired by the potential there and challenged at the same time: They wanted to change things! I wanted that too!” It was also there that he got to know the man who would later become Chancellor, Gerhard Schröder.
It was Schröder who appointed Steinmeier State Secretary in the Federal Chancellery and Commissioner for the Federal Intelligence Services, and then a year later Head of German Chancellery. Steinmeier worked on SPD strategy papers for reform of the pension and healthcare system, on plans for the “Agenda 2010” welfare and labour reforms and on the “Hartz” labour market reforms. Between 2005 and 2009 Steinmeier – like today, for his second time round – held the office of Foreign Minister, and between 2007 and 2009 he was Deputy Chancellor of Germany. In 2008 the SPD nominated Steinmeier as its candidate for Chancellor in the parliamentary elections of 2009, but the CDU gained the biggest share of the vote and entered into a coalition government with the FDP. Angela Merkel remained German Chancellor, and the SPD went into opposition.
In the current Grand Coalition that brings together the CDU and SPD parties, the German Chancellor and her Foreign Minister trust and respect each other. Steinmeier gives detailed accounts of his meetings with politicians, trade unions and human rights activists in North Africa, Africa and Eastern Europe in his Facebook account. He also uses this channel to explain his impression of a changed foreign policy: “Our country is taking a level of responsibility in the world that we can only do justice to with a forward-looking foreign policy. Now that markets have been globalised it’s high time for political globalisation!” And: “Germany must be ready to take responsibility – not because we wish to assume responsibility, but simply because others believe we have it!”
German Federal Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier turns 60 on 5 January 2016
www.frank-walter-steinmeier.de
