Nils Schmid

Nils Schmid (born July 11, 1973, Trier) is the leader of the Social Democratic Party of Germany in Baden-Württemberg.

After his A-levels at Eduard Spranger School, Filderstadt, in 1993, Schmid studied law at the University of Tübingen. He worked as a lawyer, and in 2006 he received his doctorate (summa cum laude) from Tübingen University. But then he gave up his professional career in favour of politics.

Schmid joined the Social Democratic Party of Germany in 1991 - and in 1993 he was already elected chairman of the Esslingen district of the Young Socialists in the SPD, becoming deputy chairman of the Young Socialists of Baden-Württemberg in 1996. In 1997 Schmid was elected as a member of Baden-Württemberg's state parliament. There he gradually developed into his party's main speaker on financial affairs.

Schmid was elected deputy leader of the Social Democratic MPs in the Baden-Württemberg parliament, and, in 2009, he became the leader of his party in that state (after winning a poll among its members).

After the Baden-Württemberg general elections of 2011 Schmid became Deputy Minister-President of the state of Baden-Württemberg, as well as its Minister of Financial and Economic Affairs. In this capacity, he was also a member of the German-French Friendship Group set up by the German Bundesrat and the French Senate as well as of the German-Russian Friendship Group set up in cooperation with the Russian Federation Council.

In the negotiations to form a Grand Coalition following the 2013 federal elections, Schmid was part of the SPD delegation in the working group on economic policy, led by Ilse Aigner and Hubertus Heil.

Following his party’s loss in the 2016 state elections, Schmid’s term in government ended in May 2016; he was succeeded by Nicole Hoffmeister-Kraut. Later that year, he announced that he would run in the 2017 national elections.

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