Heiko Maas
| Heiko Maas | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection | |
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Assumed office 17 December 2013 |
|
| Chancellor | Angela Merkel |
| Preceded by |
Sabine Leutheusser- Schnarrenberger (Justice) Ilse Aigner (Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection) |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
19 September 1966 Saarlouis, Germany |
| Political party | Social Democratic Party |
| Alma mater | Saarland University |
| Religion | Roman Catholic |
Heiko Maas (born 19 September 1966) is a German SPD politician. He has been Federal Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection since 17 December 2013. Before he was the leader of the SPD group in the Saarland regional parliament since 1999.
Maas was born in Saarlouis on 19 September 1966. He studied law at Saarland University.
Maas was first appointed to the Saarland Parliament in 1996, under the mentorship of Oskar Lafontaine who would later leave the Social Democrats to found his own party.
Leading the SPD into the 2009 state election only months before the federal elections that year, Maas announced he would form a coalition with Lafontaine’s Left Party should the two obtain a majority, suggesting that the party could become a potential ally for the SPD at federal level in the 2013 election. At the time, any such coalition in Saarland was widely seen as undermining the pledge made by the Social Democrat’s candidate for the federal elections, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, not to rule with the Left Party. Eventually, the SPD only gained 24.5 percent, making it the party’s worst election result in the state.
Maas was a SPD delegate to the Federal Convention for the purpose of electing the President of Germany in 2010 and 2012.
After the 2012 state election, the SPD went into coalition with the CDU, which before that election had been governing the state in coalition with the Green Party and the Liberals. While the Social Democrats and Left had won enough seats to form a coalition, Maas ruled out such an alliance in favor of a coalition with the CDU led by incumbent Minister-President Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. As deputy minister-president, he took over responsibility for the economy, transport, and employment.
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