Time and again, Cem Özdemir had to bite through or reinvent himself in his political life. It could therefore happen that he quickly succeeds in a field that could hardly be his further. In any case, the new Federal Minister of Agriculture will have to follow a steep learning curve with the Stuttgart metropolitan area. But he is hardened, as a guest worker child, after falling downhill he caused himself and after some humiliation by his green party.
A real low point in the relationship between the “Anatolian Swabia”, as he liked to call himself as a youngster, and his own people is a state party conference in the autumn of 2008 in Schwäbisch Gmünd. The then 42-year-old actually wanted to go back to the Bundestag and at the same time, with Joschka Fischer’s blessing, to the party leadership. He had eventful years behind him: the departure in Dishonor in 2002 after privately flown bonus miles, a loan from the poorly reputed PR consultant Moritz Hunzinger and a five-year stopover in the European Parliament. After a strangely listless application speech, the delegates refused the party leader-designate a promising place on the list for the 2009 Bundestag election.
But Özdemir proved to be steadfast: together with Claudia Roth he nevertheless became party chairman four weeks later. After that, he made his mark on the Greens for a decade. As a real who can do well with the Union. And with a long-term media presence, which has given him top-notch awareness and popularity. As early as 2017 – and especially last spring, when the Greens were still dreaming of Annalena Baerbock’s entry into the Chancellery due to a passing survey high – he was peeked out as Foreign Minister. When it comes to combining passion and interest in profiling, with pithy attacks on contemporaries like Putin, Assad, Trump and especially Erdoğan, the trained social pedagogue is hard to beat. But instead he is now being let loose on the farmers.
As the first German with Turkish roots, he will succeed the “Wine Queen” Julia Klöckner as Federal Minister of Agriculture. As someone without a high school diploma, because his teachers (as was not only common in the small Swabian town of Bad Urach at the time) concluded from the origin of the parents that the boy had a modest potential. When notes were distributed, Cem regularly bet with his Portuguese bank neighbor whether one or the other would do the worst – because no one else in the class was an option. At the age of 18, he received German citizenship upon application. He had been a member of the Greens for two years and was noticed there with his quick perception. And with his energetic struggle for recognition as a federal republican citizen. I am a resident was the title of his book in 1999, in which he talked about life between two cultures. “That he was able to keep his heart open for people in need, despite all the intrigues and hunted down against him, borders on a miracle,” marveled one reviewer.
In 2019, Özdemir, who temporarily ranks second on the popularity scale of all German politicians, wants to become parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag and “bring new momentum to opposition work”. Less well-meaning people inside and outside of their own party interpret such amibitions as arrogance to those who are equally eloquent and ambitious. In any case, he fails and remains Chairman of the Transport Committee: A field that was also not tailored to him. Apart from the fact that the multi-billion dollar underground station Stuttgart 21 was (and is) a constant topic in his constituency. Incidentally, a constituency in the middle of the world capital of the premium-class automakers Daimler and Porsche, in which he was the green king nationwide with 40 percent of all second votes on September 26th – the day of the federal election. Nevertheless, it was not enough for either the external or the transport department.
After all, Özdemir’s father was a farmer by trade – before he sought his fortune in Germany. In addition, the office of Minister of Agriculture is particularly important for many Greens who have been dissecting the traffic light coalition agreement for a week. There is much to be gained there: more transparency in meat production, realignment of investment support, prevention of species extinction and food waste. In addition, Özdemir enjoys great recognition in his own regional association – and the support of Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann. In 2019 he was in favor of making his companion head of the Bundestag faction, even if Özdemir was defeated in a fight candidacy against Anton Hofreiter. Is the rise to agriculture minister a kind of late reparation? Kretschmann sees it that way. In any case, it cannot be ruled out that it will go even higher for the father of two and his wife Pia Castro, who comes from Argentina.
In the spring, in order to extend their coalition with the Greens, the leaders of the battered CDU in Baden-Württemberg made the astonishing promise that they would vote for a Kretschmann successor in the state parliament if he resigned before the end of the legislative period. The 73-year-old incumbent regularly rejects this. At the same time, it is undisputed that the new green top candidate would have it much easier from the office of head of government to keep the country for his party. After four years at the cabinet table in Berlin, Özdemir could become the new owner of the Villa Reitzenstein in Stuttgart. In good time before the state elections in 2026.
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