Jörg Kukiesan important advisor to the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz, and currently Secretary of State in the Chancellery, will assume the portfolio of Finance Minister of the minority government of Social Democrats and Greens after the collapse of the coalition with the expulsion of the Liberals from it .
Kukies will replace the president of the Liberal Party (FDP), Christian Lindner in the position, which was dismissed the day before by Scholz with the argument of the loss of confidence in his Minister of Finance and the lack of willingness to find compromises to save a coalition that It was already unviable until the general elections that were going to be held on September 28, 2025.
This 56-year-old politician is considered a man of the social democrat Scholz’s absolute confidence..
The economist worked for a long time for the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Before moving to the Foreign Ministry, he was Secretary of State at the Ministry of Finance between 2018 and 2021.
Kukies is considered an important advisor to Chancellor Olaf Scholz on economic and financial issues and negotiates the final documents of the G7 and G20 summits on his behalf.
According to the first public television channel, ARDthe weekly Spiegel and other German media, the natural succession would have fallen on the vice chancellor and Minister of Economy, the environmentalist Robert Habeck, but he has not wanted to assume another such important responsibility, when the approval of the budget for 2025 and the budget are now up in the air. complementary for 2024.
The general secretary of the SPD, Matthias Miersch, confirmed that Habeck will not replace Lindnerwhich will be formally ceased around 1:00 p.m. GMT, when the President of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, will summon him to the Palace, along with the other two FDP ministers who will leave the coalition: Marco Buschman (Justice) and Bettina Stark-Watzinger (Education).
The Minister of Transport and Digital Affairs, also a liberal Vokler Wissing, is willing to remain in office, after announcing this Thursday that he was leaving the FDP. Last night Scholz called him to ask him to stay on, to which he agreed.
In a brief appearance before the press, Wissing indicated that the day before he informed Lindner of his departure from the party. “I don’t want this decision to be a burden on my party.” and that is why I have informed Christian Lindner today of my resignation,” he said.
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