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Bloomberg
Chancellor Olaf Scholz has put forth Boris Pistorius to be Germany’s new defense minister, filling a critical role in his cabinet after Christine Lambrecht resigned on Monday following a series of missteps. In a statement, Scholz praised Pistorius’s “strength and calmness,†and singled out his experience with defense policy.
The 62-year-old is a veteran Social Democrat who has served as the interior minister for the state of Lower Saxony since 2013. While Pistorius has never held a position in the federal government, he is seen as a pragmatic, hands-on policymaker who gets things done. He served in the Bundeswehr, Germany’s armed forces, in 1980-81 as part of his compulsory military service.
Pistorius, who will be the first man in the office in a decade, takes on the defense portfolio at a crucial time. Germany is grappling with upheavals in its global defense and security policies, triggered by Russia’s war on Ukraine and forthcoming decisions about arming the government in Kyiv.
US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will arrive in Berlin on Thursday, and will host a meeting of senior defense officials from allied nations.