Michael Kretschmer

This article describes the German politician (CDU). For the police officer of the same name, see Michael Kretschmer (police officer) .

Michael Kretschmer (2020)

Michael Kretschmer [ ˈkʁeːt͡ʃmɐ ] (born May 7, 1975 in Görlitz ) is a German politician ( CDU ) and since December 13, 2017 Prime Minister of the Free State of Saxony . Since 2019 he has been a member of the Saxon state parliament as a directly elected member of the constituency of Görlitz 2 .

Kretschmer was a member of the German Bundestag from 2002 to 2017. On December 9, 2017, he became chairman of the CDU regional association in Saxony . Before that, he was acting Secretary General of the CDU in Saxony from December 1, 2004 and elected General Secretary from April 23, 2005, and Deputy Chairman of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group from 2009 to 2017 , and Chairman of the Saxon state group from September 2013 to September 2017.

Life and work

Kretschmer grew up in Görlitz-Weinhübel. After completing secondary school in 1991 at the Erich Weinert High School in Görlitz, Kretschmer trained as an office information electronics technician until 1995 . In 1998 he acquired the technical college entrance qualification on the second educational path and then completed a degree in industrial engineering at the University of Technology and Economics in Dresden , which he graduated in 2002 with a degree in industrial engineering (FH).

Party career

Michael Kretschmer at the 28th state party conference of the CDU Saxony in Chemnitz (2013)

Kretschmer joined the Christian Democratic Youth in 1989 and was a member of the state executive committee of the Young Union of Saxony and Lower Silesia from 1993 to 2002 , where he was state treasurer of the JU from 1995 to 2001 . From 1994 to 2000 he was deputy chairman of the CDU district association Görlitz and has been a member of the CDU state executive in Saxony since 2003. On April 23, 2005, he was elected General Secretary of the Saxon CDU and subsequently confirmed in office several times. At the state party conference on December 9, 2017, Kretschmer was elected as the new state chairman with 90.1% of the delegate's votes, and Alexander Dierks became the new general secretary .

At the beginning of 2010, Kretschmer was the mastermind behind the sponsorship affair of the Saxon CDU, in which companies paid for contacts with Prime Minister Stanislaw Tillich as well as the express willingness to be mentioned in a welcoming speech by Kretschmer. Kretschmer had sent offers with a tiered price list to companies. According to this, an advertising photo could be made with the CDU state chairman and prime minister Tillich from 1900 euros and a conversation could be held with him for 3900 to 8000 euros. This met with criticism from the parliamentary opposition and from legal and political scientists who spoke of the borderline to corruption.

MP

From 1994 to 1999 Kretschmer was a member of the Görlitz city council. From 2008 to 2014 he was a member of the district council of the Görlitz district. From 2002 to 2017 Kretschmer was a member of the German Bundestag . From 2005 to 2009 he was deputy chairman of the education and research working group of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group . From 2009 to 2017 he was its Deputy Chairman with responsibility for education and research as well as art, culture and media.

Kretschmer was a member of the Bundestag from 2002 to 2017, always as a directly elected member of the constituency Löbau-Zittau - Görlitz - Niesky . In the 2013 federal election he received 49.6% of the first votes . Kretschmer was a member of the German-Polish, German-Czech and German-Russian parliamentary groups of the Bundestag, which maintain bilateral contacts with other national parliaments. In the 2017 federal election , Kretschmer lost his direct mandate in the Bundestag to Tino Chrupalla ( AfD ).

For the state elections in Saxony in 2019 , Kretschmer was nominated by the CDU district association of Görlitz as a direct candidate in the constituency of Görlitz 2 . He won in this constituency with 45.8 percent of the direct vote.

Prime Minister

On October 18, 2017, he was proposed by Stanislaw Tillich as his successor in the office of Saxon Prime Minister . He was elected to office by the Saxon state parliament on December 13, 2017 with 69 out of 126 votes and then sworn in.

Other engagement

From 2005 to 2016 Michael Kretschmer was a member of the administrative board of Diakoniewerk Oberlausitz. As a member of the Bundestag, Kretschmer was a member of the Senate of the Helmholtz Association of German Research Centers until September 2017 , where he campaigned for the promotion of education and research in Saxony. On August 22, 2017, he was elected President of the Saxon Adult Education Association.

Political positions

Digital change

Kretschmer wants to equip every student with a tablet computer and calls for more computer rooms, as well as a "natural integration" of the topic in the classroom. A program he represents promises to make Germany “by the end of the decade the number one digital growth country.” Sectors of the economy that Kretschmer believes should be particularly promoted include big data applications and cloud computing .

Kretschmer sees no need for action by the legislature in the areas of civil rights and net neutrality . In his opinion, the existing regulations are sufficient. In this context, he declared in mid-2013: "We are capable of acting."

Telecommunications and New Media

After a YouTube video showing the shooting of an apparently mentally confused man by a police officer in Berlin was shared particularly frequently on Facebook in June 2013 , Kretschmer criticized the social network. In this context, he explained: "If there is something where Facebook has to react immediately so that the pictures are taken off the Internet, then these are the cases" and described the pictures to the news magazine Focus as "inhuman". Such a thing should not be posted.

Guiding culture

On September 30, 2016, Kretschmer presented together with the Saxon state parliament president Matthias Rößler as well as the CSU members Markus Blume , Reinhold Bocklet and Johannes Singhammer a “call for a leading and framework culture”. The controversial term “ Leitkultur ” is referred to as a “connecting framework culture”. In socially troubled times, people needed orientation, which they would find in terms such as “ home and patriotism ” as well as in the “leading culture”. Specifically, the use of the German language, established manners, mutual respect, the spiritual tradition of the Enlightenment and Germany's national symbols such as the flag and the anthem were mentioned . The appeal was motivated, among other things, by the success of the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany in the state elections in 2016.

In the discussion about same-sex marriage , Kretschmer campaigned for the exclusivity of traditional marriage between men and women and against the right of adoption for homosexuals.

Asylum seekers in Germany

In an interview in March 2018, Kretschmer stated that there was “objectively a problem with integration”. There are "problems with people who do not want to adhere to our values ​​and laws". Better handling is needed, especially with minors. There is a new phenomenon of crime. Deportations did not work because refugees would conceal their identities. He spoke out in favor of "acting courageously in this situation" in order to remove many irritations.

Russia

In June 2019, Kretschmer, who was at the Petersburg Economic Forum with Peter Altmaier and Manuela Schwesig , met with Vladimir Putin . He had previously called for the international sanctions to be ended without the sanction reason, the violation of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, ceasing to apply.

Coalition statements and orientation of the CDU

Martin Dulig (l.), Michael Kretschmer (m.) And Jörg Urban (r.) At the election evening for the state elections in Saxony 2019

Before the state elections in Saxony in 2019 , Kretschmer expressly excluded coalitions and other forms of cooperation in parliament with the AfD and the Left Party for the CDU Saxony . In addition, Kretschmer sharply criticized Hans-Georg Maassen's remarks on the riots in Chemnitz in 2018 and was pleased that Maassen withdrew from the election campaign of the Saxon Christian Democrats as a CDU member after this criticism.

Private

Michael Kretschmer lives in Dresden-Klotzsche and in Waltersdorf near Zittau . He is of Protestant denomination and has been married to Annett Hofmann, the former MDR journalist and former spokeswoman for the Saxon State Ministry for Social Affairs and Consumer Protection, since July 24, 2020 . The couple have two sons together.

See also

• Cabinet Kretschmer I
• Cabinet Kretschmer II

Web links

Commons : Michael Kretschmer  - Collection of Images

• Own website
• Biography at the German Bundestag
• CV at the CDU / CSU parliamentary group
• Article by Michael Kretschmer in the parliamentary blog of the CDU / CSU parliamentary group

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Kretschmer and the thing with the long "E". In: Dresdner Latest News. September 1, 2018, accessed on September 2, 2019 : “But what is right now, 'Kreetschmer' or 'Krettschmer'? The former, says Kretschmer's spokesman Ralph Schreiber. The first 'E' is stretched. " 
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. - accessed December 15, 2017 
3. ↑ Presentation of the state chairman  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the CDU Saxony  
4. ↑ Presentation of the Secretary General  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. on the website of the CDU Saxony  
5. ↑ Sponsoring affair with the CDU: Saxony's Prime Minister Tillich can also be marketed . In: Spiegel Online . February 27, 2010 ( spiegel.de [accessed on May 13, 2019]).
6. ^ Once Prime Minister with photo please , Neues Deutschland from March 1st, 2010.
7. ^ German Bundestag : "Parliamentary Groups " in: Archivlink ( Memento from December 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Ticker for the 2017 federal election . In: mdr.de . September 24, 2017 ( online [accessed November 30, 2017]). Ticker for the 2017 Bundestag election ( memento of the original from December 1, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
9. ↑ Kretschmer joins CDU in Görlitz Free Press November 17, 2018
10. ↑ State election Saxony 2019 results of constituency Görlitz 2 , accessed September 5, 2019
11. ↑ mdr.de: Saxony's head of government Tillich resigns | MDR.DE . ( online [accessed October 18, 2017]). Saxony's Prime Minister Tillich resigns | MDR.DE ( Memento of the original from October 18, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  
12. ^ Michael Kretschmer: Memberships. In: [1]  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )
13. ^ Michael Kretschmer: Memberships. In: Archive link ( Memento from July 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
14. ↑ Michael Kretschmer is President of the SIA. March 22, 2017. Retrieved September 27, 2017 . 
15. ↑ ^{a b} Media-That say the experts tagesspiegel.de, June 29, 2013, accessed on June 30, 2013
16. ↑ Operation in front of the Berlin City Hall: Police union defends death rifles spiegel.de, June 29, 2013, accessed on June 30, 2013
17. ↑ Politicians criticize Facebook for YouTube video about fatal police operations heise.de, June 29, 2013, accessed on June 30, 2013
18. ↑ Sächsische Union and CSU present a joint patriotism paper entitled “Call for a Leading and Framework Culture”. ( Memento of the original from October 3, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. michaelkretschmer.de, September 30, 2016; CDU and CSU: Union politicians call for a new debate on leading culture , Zeit Online, September 30, 2016; Anja Mayer: Leitkultur attempt by the CSU / CDU Saxony: Home and Patriotism , taz from September 30, 2016. 
19. ↑ Reaction to AfD successes: Saxony-CDU and CSU call for debate on leading culture , Leipziger Volkszeitung from September 30, 2016.
20. ^ "Marriage for everyone" in the Bundestag: "The SPD says goodbye to this coalition with a big bang" , interview on Deutschlandfunk from June 28, 2017, accessed on June 30, 2017.
21. ↑ morgenpost.de (March 24, 2018): Kretschmer: "Radical Islam endangers coexistence"
22. ↑ Michael Kretschmer (CDU), "No cooperation with AfD and Left Party" SWR 23 August 2019
23. ↑ Kretschmer satisfied with Maassen's withdrawal faz.net August 26, 2019
24. ↑ https://www.tag24.de/nachrichten/sachsens-ministerpraesident-michael-kretschmer-hat-ueberraschend-annett-hofmann-geheierter-dresden-1590921
25. ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated December 16, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Sächsische Zeitung online from December 13, 2017, accessed on December 15, 2017