Karl Lauterbach (SPD) is the health minister favorite in the poll

Berlin. It is the most exciting still open question in the formation of the new federal government: Who is the SPD making the new health minister? In the population, the member of the Bundestag and epidemiologist Karl Lauterbach has sympathy on his side. In a survey by the polling institute YouGov, 45 percent are in favor of the 58-year-old. Only 33 percent would like another politician to hold this important post in the fight against the corona pandemic. The other respondents did not provide any information.

Scholz does not yet show any preference

The SPD wants to vote on the coalition agreement at a party congress this Saturday. The party leadership then decides on the occupation of its seven ministerial posts. Among them is that of the Minister of Health. Scholz has not yet shown any public preference. The epidemiologist Lauterbach has achieved a high level of awareness through numerous television appearances since the beginning of the corona pandemic. In addition to him, Hamburg’s First Mayor Peter Tschentscher is also under discussion as a possible health minister. He is a molecular biologist and a doctor.

Another exciting question when filling the last cabinet posts: Will Scholz keep his promise that his government will include at least as many women as men? “A cabinet that I run as Chancellor is at least half of the women,” he tweeted a year ago – long before the general election.

Nine out of 16 federal ministers are already known – only SPD ministers are missing

According to the Basic Law, the Federal Government consists of the Federal Chancellor and the Federal Ministers, all of whom are appointed by the Federal President and sworn in in the Bundestag. The Basic Law does not count the state ministers and state secretaries among the members of the government.

Of the 16 federal ministers, nine have already been named by the Greens and the FDP – including four women and five men. With Scholz as Chancellor, there are six men. In order to fulfill the promise of the future head of government, the SPD would have to appoint at least five federal ministers. There were then only two ministerial posts left for the men. The bottom line would then be nine women and eight men in the federal government.

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