HABECK
Robert

• 1. Early life, education and writing
• 2. Political career
• 2.1. Career in state politics
• 2.2. Role in federal politics

Robert Habeck is a German politician and writer, serving as Vice Chancellor of Germany, Federal Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and as a Member of the German Bundestag for Flensburg – Schleswig since 2021. From 2018 to 2022, he also served as co-leader of Alliance '90/The Greens, alongside Annalena Baerbock.

For the federal elections in 2021 he was a member of the leading duo, alongside Annalena Baerbock, who ran for chancellor. In 2009 he was voted into the state parliament of Schleswig-Holstein as a deputy of The Greens and became group chairman. Both, at early elections in 2012 and at the federal elections in 2017 he run as the top candidate of his own party. From 2012 to 2018 he held office as deputy prime minister and minister for energy revolution, agriculture, environment, and nature (since 2017 for digitalization[disambiguation needed] as well) for the cabinet of Albig as well as for the cabinet of Günther. After he was elected federal chairman of his party in 2018, he retired from his function as minister. At the federal elections of 2021 he achieved the direct mandate of his electoral-district Flensburg-Schleswig with 28.1 percent of first votes. Habeck is allocated to the political- realists of the Green Party.

Early life, education and writing

Habeck passed his final secondary-school examinations in 1989 at the Heinrich Heine School in Heikendorf in the Plön district. After completing his alternative civilian service in 1991 he began studying for a master’s degree with a combination of philosophy, German and philology at the Albert Ludwigs University in Freiburg im Breisgau. After the intermediate examination in 1992/93 he attended Roskilde University in Denmark. In 1996 Habeck received a master's degree from the University of Hamburg. From 1996 to 1998 he completed a doctorate at the University of Hamburg and was awarded a doctorate in philosophy in 2000.

From 1999 Habeck and his wife Andrea Paluch worked as freelance writers. In addition to children's books and translations of English poetry, Habeck (with Paluch) published six novels: among others, Hauke Haien's Death (2001), The Day I Met My Dead Man (2005) and Under the Gully lies the sea (2007). He is fluent in Danish.

Political career

Career in state politics

In 2009, Habeck was elected to the Schleswig-Holstein Landtag via the party list. In November 2011, he was voted as the top candidate of his party for the 2012 Schleswig-Holstein election. From 2009 to 2012, Habeck was chairman of the Alliance'90/The Greens group in Schleswig-Holstein.

Habeck has been Deputy Prime Minister and State Minister for Energy, Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas in the centre-left Albig Cabinet since 2012 and in the center-right Günther Cabinet between 2017 and 2018. Under his influence – he was not a candidate for parliament – the Green Party became the third largest group in the Landtag after the 2017 state elections. As one of his state's representatives at the Bundesrat, he served on the Committee on Agricultural Policy and Consumer Protection; the Committee on the Environment, Nature Protection and Reactor Safety; the Committee on Economic Affairs; and the Committee on Transport. From 2014 and 2016, Habeck was one of the members of Germany's temporary National Commission on the Disposal of Radioactive Waste.

Role in federal politics

Habeck served as a Green Party delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2012. He ran to become one of the two top candidates for the Greens for the 2017 German federal election, but lost by 75 votes to Cem Özdemir.

On 27 January 2018, the Green Party's national convention in Hanover elected him as chairman, a position shared with Annalena Baerbock.

Habeck was elected to the Bundestag in the 2021 German federal election, defeating the CDU incumbent Petra Nicolaisen in the constituency of Flensburg – Schleswig. After the Greens agreed to form a traffic light coalition government with the centre-left Social Democrats and liberal Free Democrats, new Chancellor Olaf Scholz named Habeck as Minister for Economic Affairs and Climate Action and Vice Chancellor in December 2021, making him one of the most powerful politicians in Europe.