Monitoring Desk
BERLIN: Boris Pistorius, a relatively unknown politician currently serving as interior minister for the state of Lower Saxony, will be the new defence minister of Germany, government sources told AFP news agency on Tuesday.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is expected to announce the appointment later today.
The new appointment follows the resignation of Christine Lambrecht at a critical time for the defence ministry, with Germany under severe pressure to send military aid to Ukraine.
If confirmed, Pistorius, a member of Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD), would be a surprise selection for the post of defence minister.
Pistorius would beat much better-known politicians, including Employment Minister Hubertus Heil, and Eva Hoegl, the parliamentary commissioner on armed forces, in the run for the post.
Pistorius eligibility for defence minister’s post
It would also break a streak of having three women defence ministers and upending a promise by Chancellor Scholz to keep his cabinet gender-balanced when he assumed the post in 2021.
Born in Osnabrueck, Boris Pistorius studied law and worked as an advocate before entering politics in the early 1990s.
Before taking up his post of interior minister in Lower Saxony, Pistorius was the mayor of Osnabrueck.
Boris Pistorius has gained a reputation for renewing the police force in Lower Saxony and enhancing its capacity to combat extremism.
Der Spiegel said he is “the most visible” of the state interior ministers and is deeply connected with the security authorities.”
Pistorius had previously been rumoured to be making efforts for the position of federal interior minister, which is expected to fall vacant later this year. The post is currently held by Nancy Faeser.
His expected appointment as the German defence minister would see him follow the guidelines of other senior politicians who graduated to national politics from Lower Saxony, such as Gerhard Schroeder and Sigmar Gabriel.
Pistorius would have a massive task on his hands, taking up the new post days before an important meeting of Ukraine’s allies defence ministers when Berlin is under intense pressure to send battle tanks to Kyiv.
Lambrecht handed in her resignation on Monday after intense pressure.
