After Jens Spahn's resignation as leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (also CDU) is reshuffling his cabinet. The outgoing Health Minister, Nina Warken (CDU), will become Chief of the Chancellery, Merz announced on Friday in Berlin. She succeeds Thorsten Frei, who is taking over from Spahn as leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Former CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann is taking over the Health Ministry from Warken. Merz also hinted at further personnel decisions to come.
Warken will be the first woman to hold the post of Chief of the Chancellery. In recent months as Health Minister, she had shown "that she can run a ministry, that she can push through reforms even against resistance," Merz said. She is also "a tough negotiator."
Linnemann will now take over from Warken responsibility for the upcoming nursing care reform and further structural reforms in health policy, the Chancellor emphasized. "We must maintain the course of reform, and for that we need a minister who is both steadfast and willing to reform, even against headwinds."
Merz also appointed Philipp Amthor (CDU) as the new State Minister for Federal-State Relations at the Chancellery. For this role, he will bring his experience "in the entire federal modernization agenda" from the Federal Digital Ministry, the Chancellor said. Amthor is, moreover, "well connected with the heads of the state chancelleries in all 16 federal states." At the Digital Ministry, Amthor had previously served as parliamentary state secretary.
Merz announced "further changes to the federal cabinet." He would inform the public about this "at the appropriate time," but "these decisions now need a few more days, and perhaps more time, given the summer recess." He would decide "without time pressure and within the necessary timeframe and after the talks" that need to take place.
According to information from the newspaper "Bild," Transport Minister Patrick Schnieder is set to leave his post. The reason is said to be the Chancellor's deep and ongoing dissatisfaction with Schnieder's handling of his office, particularly regarding the perennial crisis areas of the rail network and infrastructure, as the paper quoted from CDU/CSU circles.
Merz praised the achievements of Thorsten Frei, who is moving from the Chancellery to head the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. Frei had "played a decisive role in the government's success so far and in the stability of the coalition," the Chancellor said. "The reform successes we have achieved in recent weeks in particular are also his achievement."
Frei had already been nominated as the new leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group on Wednesday. He is due to be elected at a special group meeting on Wednesday. Frei succeeds Jens Spahn, who resigned amid the debate over his family planning via surrogacy in the US.
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