Career in state politics

Faeser joined the SPD in 1988.^[3]

In parliament, Faeser served as a member of the Committee on Legal Affairs (2003–2009), the Committee on the Election of Judges (2003–2013), the Committee on Economic Affairs, Energy and Transport (2014–2018) and the Committee on Internal Affairs (since 2009).^[4] From 2009, she was her parliamentary group's spokesperson on internal affairs.

In the 2013 Hesse state election, Faeser was the shadow minister for internal affairs in the campaign team of SPD candidate Thorsten Schäfer-Gümbel.^[5] In 2019, she was elected her parliamentary group's chairwoman.

On 17 June 2023, Faeser was elected as the top candidate on the party list in the upcoming 2023 Hessian state election, and also stood as the party's direct candidate in the Main-Taunus I electoral district in Frankfurt's northwestern suburbs, which includes her hometown of Schwalbach am Taunus. However, she won only 14.8% of the direct vote in the district, coming third after CDU (43.9%) and the Greens (16.1%).^[6][7] She was elected on the party list, but all three federal government parties (SPD, the Greens and FDP) suffered losses in the election, with SPD winning only 15% of the vote in its worst performance in the state history and coming third after CDU (34.6%) and AfD (18.4%). The loss can be attributed to discontent with Scholz's government, of which she is a minister.^[8]

Minister of the Interior, 2021–present

In the negotiations to form a so-called traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Green Party and the Free Democrats (FDP) following the 2021 German elections, Faeser was part of her party's delegation in the working group on migration and integration, co-chaired by Boris Pistorius, Luise Amtsberg and Joachim Stamp.^[9]

After the coalition was successfully formed, on 6 December 2021, it was announced that Faeser would become the first female Interior Minister of Germany in the German government in the Scholz cabinet.^[10] In her capacity as minister, Faeser also takes part in the meetings of the Standing Conference of Interior Ministers and Senators of the States (IMK).

Faeser was nominated by her party as delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2022.^[11]

In September 2022, the Ministry of the Interior under Faeser closed the "Expert Group on Political Islamism" set up by her predecessor, Horst Seehofer.^[12]

Prior to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, when asked in an interview with ARD's Monitor about the awarding of the event to the country, she emphasised that awarding major sporting events should be linked to compliance with human rights and principles of sustainability, by saying: "There are criteria that must be adhered to and it would be better that tournaments are not awarded to such states."^[13] In response, the Gulf Cooperation Council condemned the remarks, and Qatar summoned the German ambassador to protest against her comments.^[14][15] Faeser attended Germany's first game at the World Cup on 23 November where she wore a OneLove armband (a pro LGBTQ+ symbol)^[15] which FIFA had prevented players from wearing in the tournament with threats of sanctions.^[16]

In March 2023, Faeser participated in the first joint cabinet meeting of the governments of Germany and Japan in Tokyo, chaired by Chancellor Scholz and Prime Minister Fumio Kishida.^[17]

In April 2023, Faeser appointed an eight-person commission to re-appraise the attack on Israeli athletes and team members at the 1972 Summer Olympics to answer unresolved questions.^[18]

Immigration

In her first year in office, Faeser extended border checks at crossings from Austria for six months after a rise in the number of migrants arriving via the Western Balkans route.^[19][20]

Following Faeser's propospal, Germany's coalition government listed Georgia and Moldova as safe countries of origin in August 2023, in an effort to process asylum applications from those countries more quickly and lead to faster deportations for failed applicants.^[21]

In September 2023, more than 120 boats carrying around 7,000 migrants from Africa arrived on the Italian island of Lampedusa within 24 hours.^[22] Faeser said that "in view of the massive influx of migrants to Lampedusa, Berlin wants to once again, voluntarily, accept migrants from Italy, which was recently halted."^[23]