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Hans-Peter Friedrich

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Hans-Peter Friedrich
Vice President of the Bundestag
(on proposal of the CDU/CSU group)
In office
24 October 2017 – 26 October 2021
Preceded byJohannes Singhammer
Succeeded byYvonne Magwas
Minister of Food and Agriculture
In office
17 December 2013 – 17 February 2014
ChancellorAngela Merkel
Preceded byIlse Aigner
Succeeded byChristian Schmidt
Minister of the Interior
In office
3 March 2011 – 17 December 2013
ChancellorAngela Merkel
Preceded byThomas de Maizière
Succeeded byThomas de Maizière
First Deputy Leader of the CDU/CSU Group in the Bundestag
In office
28 October 2009 – 3 March 2011
LeaderVolker Kauder
Preceded byPeter Ramsauer
Succeeded byGerda Hasselfeldt
Member of the Bundestag
for Hof
Incumbent
Assumed office
17 October 2002
Preceded byPetra Ernstberger
Member of the Bundestag
for Bavaria
In office
26 October 1998 – 17 October 2002
ConstituencyParty-list proportional representation
Personal details
Born (1957-03-10) 10 March 1957 (age 67)
Naila, West Germany
Political partyChristian Social Union
Children3
Alma materUniversity of Augsburg

Hans-Peter Friedrich (born 10 March 1957) is a German politician of the Christian Social Union (CSU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since 1998. Under the leadership of Chancellor Angela Merkel, he served as Federal Minister of the Interior (2011-2013)[1] and as Minister for Food and Agriculture (2013). Friedrich resigned from that position in February 2014. Friedrich has a controversial history with minorities in Germany, causing outrage in 2013 after telling journalists that Islam in Germany is not something supported by history at any point.[2]

Early life and education

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Born in 1957 in Naila, near the northern Bavarian town of Hof, Friedrich has a PhD in law and also studied economics. From 1990 to 1991, Friedrich worked in the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and the economy department of the Germany Embassy in Washington, D.C.[3]

Political career

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Early career

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Friedrich began his national political career as an aide to Michael Glos, a senior CSU official in parliament.[4]

Friedrich has been a member of the Bundestag since the 1998 federal elections,.[4] He was deputy chairman of the investigating committee for party donations from 1999 until 2002 and for electoral fraud from 2002 until 2004. From 2002 until 2005 he was also judicial counselor of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group.

Following the 2005 federal elections, when his party joined a Grand Coalition with Angela Merkel as Chancellor, Friedrich became deputy chairman of the parliamentary group under the leadership of Volker Kauder, covering the portfolio of housing and development.[5] Between 2007 and 2009, he was one of 32 members of the Second Commission on the modernization of the federal state, which had been established to reform the division of powers between federal and state authorities in Germany.

In the negotiations to form a coalition government following the 2009 federal elections, Friedrich led the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on transport and building policies; his co-chair from the FDP was Patrick Döring.

From 2009, Friedrich led the CSU in parliament, replacing Peter Ramsauer. During that time, he was said to have enjoyed a good relationship with Merkel and to have often sided with national interests over Bavarian ones.[3] Economic policy was widely seen as his passion as he has supported raising the retirement age to 67 despite opposition from CSU leader Horst Seehofer.[3] He also played a behind-the-scenes part in crafting Germany's response to the euro zone crisis.[3]

Federal Minister of the Interior, 2011-2013

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On 3 March 2011 Friedrich succeeded Thomas de Maizière as Federal Minister of the Interior[1] who replaced Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg. The fact that Friedrich, like Guttenberg, came from the northern Bavarian area of Upper Franconia meant that his appointment ensured the regional balance of power within the CSU was maintained.[3]

On the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of the diplomatic relations between German and India, Friedrich participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the two countries’ governments in Delhi in May 2011.[6] On 7 June 2011 he attended the state dinner hosted by President Barack Obama in honor of Chancellor Angela Merkel at the White House.[7]

European integration

In early 2012, Friedrich became Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first Cabinet member to suggest Greece’s exit from the euro. In an interview with Der Spiegel, he said Greece would have better chances of overhauling its economy and restoring growth if it left the euro area.[8]

In late 2012, Friedrich called for the immediate suspension of the visa-free regime for Serbia and Macedonia after more than 7,000 citizens of the two countries applied for asylum in Germany within one year.[9]

Surveillance

In the wake of the US National Security Agency's (NSA) internet surveillance scandal around PRISM in 2013, Friedrich was long perceived as not particularly devoted to investigating the full scope of NSA spying activities in Germany.[10] Instead, he defended the NSA's methods and promptly demanded legislation changes, in order to be able to expand surveillance of communication traffic by the German Bundesnachrichtendienst as well.[11] In an effort to point out how valuable information provided by the NSA can be for Germany, he argued that forty-five terror attacks had been prevented by the Prism program, including five in Germany; however, he soon back-peddled, unable to pinpoint the five instances.[12] In a later interview with Münchner Merkur newspaper, Friedrich held that Edward Snowden was not a victim of political persecution.[13]

Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, 2013

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In the negotiations to form a so-called Grand Coalition following the 2013 federal elections, Friedrich led the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on internal affairs and justice; his co-chair from the SPD was Thomas Oppermann.

Friedrich was sworn in as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture in the third cabinet of Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel on 17 December 2013. He resigned on 14 February 2014,[14] reacting to imminent legal investigations into incidents during his tenure as Federal Minister of the Interior. He is accused of betraying state secrets about legal investigations into Social Democrat Party (SPD) heads during the coalition negotiations after the federal elections in 2013. Prosecutors complained that the leak may have compromised their inquiry.[15] The investigations showed MP Sebastian Edathy's link to a globally-operating child pornography syndicate,[16] and plans to take up an investigation against Edathy on suspicion of possessing such material.[14]

Vice-President of the German Bundestag, 2017–2021

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Following the 2017 elections, Friedrich was elected as one of the vice presidents of the German Parliament, under the leadership of President Wolfgang Schäuble. In this capacity, he also joined the parliament's Council of Elders, which – among other duties – determines daily legislative agenda items and assigns committee chairpersons based on party representation.

In 2020, Friedrich co-founded the “China-Bridge” initiative, a non-profit networking association to strengthen links between Germany and China.[17][18]

Other activities

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Corporate boards

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  • Friedrich-Baur-GmbH, Member of the Advisory Board
  • Münchener Verein, Member of the Supervisory Board

Non-profit organizations

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Personal life

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Friedrich is married with three children.[22]

See also

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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hans-Peter Friedrich.

References

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  1. ^ a b "Neue Minister ernannt" [New ministers appointed]. Cabinet of Germany (in German). 3 March 2011. Retrieved 3 March 2011.[permanent dead link]
  2. ^ "Is Britain Siding with 'Dubious' German Minister in EU Immigration Battle?". 7 March 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e Erik Kirschbaum and Eric Kelsey (2 March 2011), German ministers in cabinet reshuffle Reuters.
  4. ^ a b Daryl Lindsey (2 March 2011), Merkel Shuffles Cabinet: German Interior Minister to Replace Guttenberg Spiegel Online.
  5. ^ "Wechselt von der Leyen ins Gesundheitsministerium?". Hamburger Abendblatt. 2 October 2009.
  6. ^ Günther Bannas (30 May 2011), Hoffnung auf „Eurofighter“-Geschäft: Erste deutsch-indische Regierungskonsultationen Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.
  7. ^ Expected Attendees at Tonight's State Dinner Office of the First Lady of the United States, press release of 7 June 2011.
  8. ^ Tony Czuczka (25 February 2012), Germany’s Friedrich Urges Greek Exit From Euro, Spiegel Says Bloomberg News.
  9. ^ Toby Vogel (17 October 2012), Calls to end the visa-free regime European Voice.
  10. ^ Veit Medick and Philipp Wittrock (17 July 2013), NSA Scandal: Merkel's Interior Minister Not Up to the Job Spiegel Online.
  11. ^ "100-Millionen-Programm: BND will Internet-Überwachung massiv ausweiten". Spiegel Online (in German). 16 June 2013.
  12. ^ Veit Medick and Philipp Wittrock (17 July 2013), NSA Scandal: Merkel's Interior Minister Not Up to the Job Spiegel Online.
  13. ^ Stefan Wagstyl and Kiran Stacey (5 November 2013), Germany warns UK on spying Financial Times.
  14. ^ a b "German Agriculture Minister Friedrich resigns amid Edathy scandal". DW.DE. 14 February 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  15. ^ Erik Kirschbaum (18 February 2014), Germany's Merkel convenes allies to restore confidence after scandal Reuters.
  16. ^ "German politician Edathy rejects child porn allegation". DW.DE. 11 February 2014. Retrieved 28 March 2014.
  17. ^ Andreas Rinke (14 January 2020), Germany creates elite networking club to boost China ties Reuters.
  18. ^ Torsten Riecke (15 January 2020), Neues Netzwerk: CSU-Politiker Hans-Peter Friedrich schlägt Brücke zu China Handelsblatt.
  19. ^ "A Message from Germany" (PDF). Atlantik-Brücke e.V. Archived from the original (PDF) on 22 February 2014. Retrieved 30 April 2016.
  20. ^ Board of Trustees Foundation for Family Businesses.
  21. ^ Advisory Board Stiftung Datenschutz.
  22. ^ Hans-Peter Friedrich: A conservative minister's slow decline Deutsche Welle, 14 February 2014.
Political offices
Preceded by Minister of the Interior
2011–2013 		Succeeded by
Preceded byas Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection Minister of Food and Agriculture
2013–2014 		Succeeded by
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