Germany's economy and defence ministers give up Bundestag mandates

Germany's Economy Minister Peter Altmaier and Defence Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer will give up their Bundestag mandates, the two politicians announced on Saturday.

They are making way for Nadine Schoen and Markus Uhl, who will enter the Bundestag as successors from the centre-right CDU party's Saarland state list.

Kramp-Karrenbauer was elected to the Bundestag with the top spot on the Saarland list. Altmaier had run for second place.

It is important have a generational shift, Altmaier said. "Renewal is possible, you just need to want it," he added.

For Kramp-Karrenbauer, it was not enough to just say that the country and the party were more important than one's own political career. It is now a situation "where you have to do it."

Nadine Schoen, 38, has been a member of the Bundestag since 2009. She was involved in negotiations when the SPD and CDU agreed in principle on a binding quota for women on management boards at the end of 2020.

Markus Uhl, 41, was first elected to the Bundestag in 2017. Before that, he worked in the Saarland state chancellery from 2012 to 2017.

The CDU state chairman in Saarland, Tobias Hans, had announced at short notice on Saturday that he would issue a press statement "on the situation of the CDU in the state and the federal government after the federal elections."

Hans praised the two ministers for renouncing their mandates.