Stefan Birkner

Stefan Birkner (2017)

Stefan Birkner (born April 12, 1973 in Münsterlingen , Switzerland ) is a German politician ( FDP ). He is the state chairman of the FDP Lower Saxony and chairman of the Free Democrats in the Lower Saxony state parliament. From January 18, 2012 to February 19, 2013 he was Minister of the Lower Saxony Ministry for Environment, Energy and Climate Protection ; previously he was State Secretary under Minister Hans-Heinrich Sander since February 2008 .

After the state election in Lower Saxony on October 15, 2017, Birkner moved again as a member of the Lower Saxony state parliament via the state list of the FDP after 2008 and 2013 . On September 26, 2017, he was elected chairman of the parliamentary group after the previous incumbent Christian Dürr resigned due to his election to the German Bundestag . The members of the FDP parliamentary group confirmed Birkner in this office after the state election in 2017.

Life

Stefan Birkner grew up in Garbsen . He attended the primary school there, the orientation level in Berenbostel and the Geschwister-Scholl-Gymnasium Berenbostel . After graduating from high school in 1992 and doing community service at the Garbsen social and diaconal station, he studied law at the University of Hanover and in 2002 at the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder) with a thesis on the passage rights of merchant and warships by the Turkish Straights PhD . From 2001 to 2003 he completed his legal clerkship in the higher regional court district of Celle. After the second state examination in 2003, he was the personal advisor to Lower Saxony's Environment Minister Sander. From autumn 2003 to November 2005 and from April 2007 to February 2008 he worked as a public prosecutor and as a judge , most recently at the Neustadt am Rübenberge district court . In the meantime he was seconded to the Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment and headed the minister's office there.

Birkner is married and has two children. The former Schleswig-Holstein Environment Minister and current party chairman Robert Habeck ( Alliance 90 / The Greens ) is his brother-in-law.

Career in the FDP

Party offices

Birkner has been a member of the FDP since 1991. From 2004 to 2008 he was Secretary General of the Lower Saxony FDP regional association . On September 25, 2011, he succeeded Philipp Rösler as FDP state chairman after he had been elected federal chairman of the FDP in May . Birkner received 222 votes in this by-election, which corresponded to 87.4% of the delegate votes cast. In the following elections in 2012, 2014 and 2016, he was re-elected as the state chairman of the FDP Lower Saxony. As Lower Saxony's state chairman, he is a permanent guest on the FDP federal executive committee .

List places

On July 7, 2007, Birkner was elected at a state delegate meeting of the FDP Lower Saxony in Braunlage with 248 votes (86.11%) in 7th place on the state list for the state election 2008. In the following lists for 2013 and 2017 he was elected by the delegates of his party as the top candidate on the list . For the 2013 state elections , this happened on July 15, 2012 in Osterholz. There Birkner received 271 delegate votes (96.1%) for his candidacy. For the early elections to the Lower Saxony State Parliament in 2017 , the list was drawn up on August 13, 2017 in Hanover. There Birkner elected 283 delegates as the top candidate (96.92%).

Parliamentary activities and political offices

From 2006 to 2008 Birkner was involved in local politics in the Garbsen city council . With a result of 8.2 percent for the FDP, Birkner was able to enter the Lower Saxony state parliament for the first time in the 2008 state elections. However, he resigned both his council and his state parliament mandate in February 2008, since he had been appointed State Secretary.

In October 2011, the then Environment Minister of Lower Saxony, Hans-Heinrich Sander, announced his resignation on January 17, 2012. On January 18, 2012, Birkner was sworn in before the state parliament as his successor.

In the 2013 state elections , the CDU and FDP lost their government majority to the SPD and Bündnis 90 / Die Grünen. Although Birkner was the top candidate of the FDP, he did not take over the position of parliamentary group chairman after the election , but left this task to the previous FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr . After his election to the German Bundestag on September 24, 2017, Birkner took over the office of parliamentary group chairman on September 26, 2017. His successor as deputy group chairman was Björn Försterling . On October 16, 2017, the FDP parliamentary group re-elected him unanimously as their chairman after the state elections in 2017.

In the 17th electoral term of the Lower Saxony state parliament, Birkner belonged to the committee for matters relating to the protection of the constitution and the election review committee . In addition, he was chairman of the FDP parliamentary group in the 23rd parliamentary committee of inquiry - "Activities of the security authorities against the Islamist threat in Lower Saxony". He is a deputy member of the Committee for Legal and Constitutional Issues and the Subcommittee " Prison Service and Aid to Criminal Justice ", alongside FDP MP Marco Genthe .

In the 18th electoral term, Birkner was re-elected to the state parliament as the FDP's top candidate. He is a member of the Committee on Constitutional Protection Affairs and the Media Subcommittee. He is also a deputy in the Committee on Law and Constitution and in the Committee on Federal and European Affairs.