Volker_Wissing

Volker Wissing

Volker Wissing

German politician (born 1970)

Volker Wissing (born 22 April 1970) is a German lawyer, former judge and politician of the liberal Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as the party's General Secretary since 2020, and as Minister for Transport in the federal government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz since 2021. He previously was the Deputy Minister-President of Rhineland-Palatinate in the state government under Minister-President Malu Dreyer from 2016 to 2021 and a member of the German Parliament from 2004 to 2013.

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Early life and education

Wissing was born 1970 in the German town of Landau in der Pfalz and studied law at the Saarland University.[1]

Wissing achieved a law degree and worked for some time as a judge before he entered professional politics.[2]

Political career

Career in national politics

Wissing entered the FDP in 1998. He became a member of the German Bundestag in 2004 when he took the seat of Marita Sehn who had died in a car accident. From 2004 until 2013, he served on the Finance Committee; he chaired the committee from 2009 until 2013. From 2011 until 2013, he also served as one of his parliamentary group's deputy chairpersons, under the leadership of chairman Rainer Brüderle.

In the negotiations to form a coalition government of the FDP and the Christian Democrats (CDU together with the Bavarian CSU) following the 2009 federal elections, Wissing was part of the FDP delegation in the working group on financial policy and taxes, led by Thomas de Maizière und Hermann Otto Solms.[3]

Career in state politics

On the state level, Wissing became chairman of the party's branch in Rhineland-Palatinate in 2011 succeeding Rainer Brüderle.[4] He led the Free Democratic Party back into the Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate in the 2016 state election. After coalition negotiations Wissing became Deputy Minister President and State Minister for Economics, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture in Malu Dreyer's second cabinet.

In 2020 FDP leader Christian Lindner nominated Wissing to serve as General Secretary of the party, succeeding Linda Teuteberg. Subsequently, Wissing announced his switch for state politics to the federal arena, announcing his candidacy for the Bundestag in the 2021 federal election.

Minister of Digital Affairs and Transport, 2021–present

On 24 November 2021, Wissing was nominated by the Federal Executive Committee of the FDP for the post of Federal Ministry of Transport and Digital Infrastructure in the designated federal government. He took office as Transport Minister on 8 December as the Scholz cabinet was sworn in.

Early in his tenure, Wissing ordered the blocking of German airspace for Russian aircraft in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.[5]

In July 2022, Wissing publicly presented his plans to meet emissions reductions targets in the German transport sector, shortly before the deadline. The scientific committee tasked with assessing the sufficiency of his proposed measures declared the plan entirely insufficient and decided not even to evaluate it, given there was "nothing to be evaluated".[6]

In March 2023, Wissing 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.[7] In October 2023, he joined the first joint cabinet retreat of the German and French governments in Hamburg, chaired by Scholz and President Emmanuel Macron.[8][9]

Other activities

Corporate boards

  • KfW, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (since 2021)[10]

Non-profit organizations

  • German-Jordanian Society, Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board[11]
  • Association of German Foundations, Member of the Parliamentary Advisory Board (2005-2013)

Personal life

Wissing is married and has a daughter. The family lives in Bad Bergzabern and Berlin's Prenzlauer Berg district.[12]

References

  1. [1]
    "Volker Wissing zukünftig Generalsekretär beim Senat der Wirtschaft". Pfalz-Express. 27 December 2013. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  2. [2]
    "Deutscher Bundestag: Wissing, Dr. Volker". webarchiv.bundestag.de. Archived from the original on 22 September 2021. Retrieved 30 December 2020.
  3. [3]
    Koalitionsverhandlungen: Wen Union und FDP zum Feilschen schicken Spiegel Online, October 6, 2009.
  4. [4]
    "Lindner schlägt Wissing vor: Kein Politiker der Herzen". Retrieved 30 December 2020 – via www.faz.net.
  5. [5]
    Riham Alkousaa (26 February 2022), Germany to close airspace to Russian planes Archived 5 March 2022 at the Wayback Machine Reuters.
  6. [6]
    Kaiser, Arvid; Schaible, Jonas (25 August 2022). "Expertenrat urteilt: Wissings Klimaprogramm für den Verkehr »schon im Ansatz ohne Anspruch«". Der Spiegel (in German). ISSN 2195-1349. Retrieved 29 August 2022.
  7. [7]
    Regierungskonsultationen: Scholz und Minister in Japan Tagesschau, 18 March 2023.
  8. [8]
    Sarah Marsh and Andreas Rinke (9 October 2023), Germany, France hold unprecedented cabinet retreat to oil creaky EU motor Reuters.
  9. [9]
    Erste deutsch-französische Kabinettsklausur: Zukunftsfragen und Weltpolitik diskutiert Cabinet of Germany, press release of 10 October 2023.
  10. [10]
    Board of Supervisory Directors and its Committees Archived 19 October 2021 at the Wayback Machine KfW.
  11. [11]
    Parliamentary Advisory Board Archived 22 February 2020 at the Wayback Machine German-Jordanian Society.
  12. [12]
    Andreas Hoffmann (28 September 2013), Bundestag adé: Herr Wissing räumt auf Stern.
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