Helmuth Markov

Helmuth Markov (born June 5, 1952 in Leipzig ) is a German politician ( Die Linke ) and was a member of the European Parliament from 1999 to 2009 . From November 2009 to November 2014 he was Deputy Prime Minister , Finance Minister until January 2014 and then Justice Minister of the State of Brandenburg until his resignation in April 2016 .

Life and work

Helmuth Markov is the son of the German historian Walter Markov (1909–1993). After graduating from high school with vocational training as a bookseller in 1970, Markov completed an engineering degree at the Polytechnic Institute in Kiev , which he completed in 1976 as a qualified engineer for electrical drives and automation of industrial plants. He then worked as an employee in international license trading and from 1978 to 1990 as department head for research and development of electrical engineering systems at VEB Lokomotivbau Elektrotechnische Werke (LEW) Hennigsdorf . In 1984 he received his doctorate as a doctoral engineer .

From 1990 to 2002 Markov was managing director of Eltese GmbH Stolpe and from 1998 to 2004 managing director of LE-W Warmwassersysteme GmbH Hennigsdorf . In addition, Helmuth Markov is a judo trainer at the Hennigsdorf judo club.

Helmuth Markov is married and has three children.

Political party

Markov became a member of the SED in 1973 and was chairman of the PDS state association in Brandenburg from 1993 to 1995 .

MP

From 1990 to 1999 Markov was a member of the Brandenburg state parliament .

From the 1999 European elections he was a member of the European Parliament . Here he was treasurer of the GUE / NGL group . Since February 1, 2007, he has been Chairman of the Committee on International Trade , Deputy Member of the Committee on Transport and Tourism and a member of the Temporary Committee on the Political Challenges and Budgetary Means of the Enlarged Union 2007-2013 . He was also a member of the delegations for relations with Ukraine and Moldova . Since 2009 he has been a member of the Federal Council for the state of Brandenburg .

Minister in Brandenburg

On November 6, 2009, Markov was appointed as the successor to Rainer Speer as Minister of Finance and Deputy Prime Minister of the State of Brandenburg. Markov was the first finance minister in Germany to be a member of the Die Linke party.

Markov's central task as finance minister was the consolidation of the Brandenburg state budget, i. H. reducing net borrowing. As a politician of the left, he was faced with the challenge, on the one hand, of sustainably reducing the country's expenditure, including in particular a drastic reduction in the workforce in the state administration, and, on the other hand, of making a financial policy that still shows that it was driven by a politician of the Left is responsible.

With regard to the reduction of the workforce, by updating the personnel requirement planning , Markov has chosen not only to set savings targets but also, for the first time in 10 years, to provide a recruitment corridor for junior staff for general non-technical state administration .

Since March 25, 2011 he has been one of four representatives of the state of Brandenburg on the supervisory board of Flughafen Berlin Brandenburg GmbH .

On December 16, 2013, Die Linke announced that Markov would succeed the Justice Minister Volkmar Schöneburg, who had recently resigned . On January 21, 2014, he was appointed by the Prime Minister and took his oath of office on the following day before the state parliament.

After the state elections in 2014, he was appointed Minister of Justice and for Europe and Consumer Protection on November 5, 2014. With the formation of the state government, the European and consumer protection departments were integrated into the Ministry of Justice. Christian Görke took over the office of Deputy Prime Minister .

On April 22, 2016, Helmuth Markov resigned because of a company car affair. During his time as finance minister and deputy prime minister, he privately used a van from the state fleet in the summer of 2010 to bring his motorcycle to the workshop. Although there was no legal objection to his use of the company vehicle, moral reproaches were made for it, to which he did not want to expose himself as minister.

See also: Kabinett Platzeck III and Kabinett Woidke I