New Commissioner for Eastern Europe: This woman is taking over the office that the CDU wanted to abolish – who is she?

It is not easy to say what was the bigger surprise: that Elisabeth Kaiser is to become Commissioner for Eastern Europe in the new federal government or that the office still exists at all.

What is certain is that some restructuring was required before Kaiser could be offered the position. The office had to be removed from the Chancellery. How could the future CDU Chancellor Friedrich Merz have had a Commissioner for Eastern Europe under his command when Christian Democrats like Philipp Amthor, Secretary General of the CDU Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, had long wanted to abolish the office? The Commissioner for Eastern Europe has "only the power of a business card" but hardly anything "to decide or say." Thuringia's former head of government, Bodo Ramelow, put it this way: "We don't need a "greety August." And there were voices from the western SPD that advocated for a "Commissioner for Equal Living Conditions." After all, there are disadvantaged regions in the west too.

Nevertheless, in the end, it seemed as if the office would have to be in SPD hands if it was to continue operating at all. And for that to happen, the office had to be transferred to the Ministry of Finance, headed by SPD leader, Vice Chancellor, and West German Lars Klingbeil.

But who is Elisabeth Kaiser, the 38-year-old from Gera in Thuringia? She has been a member of the Bundestag since 2017, and most recently, she served as State Secretary in the (SPD-led) Ministry of Construction, a position she barely noticed publicly.

Kaiser once gave information about herself on the portal “We are the East” . There she reports that she went to Potsdam, Colchester in England and Lille in France to study. She then took up her first job at a management consultancy in Berlin before returning to Thuringia and entering politics. It goes without saying that she would only run for the Bundestag for her home town of Gera and eastern Thuringia because: “For far too long there has been a lack of social democratic representation in Berlin.” She is currently one of only two SPD MPs from Thuringia alongside Carsten Schneider – and only one of 13 from the east overall , including Olaf Scholz and his Potsdam constituency.

East SPD: Only 13 MPs left – one of them is Olaf Scholz

Among these 13, Elisabeth Kaiser is one of the youngest. She sees herself as a "voice for East German interests" and wants to "finally" advocate for wage equalization, as well as for targeted support programs and prioritization in infrastructure and location decisions.

Furthermore, she hopes that East-West debates will be overcome within 20 to 30 years at the latest. And, how could it be otherwise, "more self-confidence among East Germans and more trust and optimism in a bright future." The next four years will show how much Elisabeth Kaiser's own contribution can be to this.