Daniela Schmitt (born 5 August 1972) is a German politician of the

Free Democratic Party Free Democratic Party is the name of several political parties around the world. It usually designates a party ideologically based on liberalism. Current parties with that name include: *Free Democratic Party (Germany), a liberal political party in ...

(FDP) who has been serving as State Minister for Economics, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture in the state government of

Rhineland-Palatinate Rhineland-Palatinate ( , ; german: link=no, Rheinland-Pfalz ; lb, Rheinland-Pfalz ; pfl, Rhoilond-Palz) is a western state of Germany. It covers and has about 4.05 million residents. It is the ninth largest and sixth most populous of the ...

since 2021. From 2013 until 2021, she was Secretary of State for Economic Affairs, Transport, Agriculture and Viticulture under minister Volker Wissing. Since 2013, Schmitt has also been deputy leader of the state FDP and a member of the party's federal executive.

Education and early career

After completing an apprenticeship as a bank clerk, Schmitt studied financial

business administration Business administration, also known as business management, is the administration of a commercial enterprise. It includes all aspects of overseeing and supervising the business operations of an organization. From the point of view of management ...

and successfully completed her degree at the

Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Frankfurt School of Finance & Management Frankfurt School of Finance & Management is a private university with a right to award doctorates, recognized under Hesse’s Higher Education Act. The parent organization is the Frankfurt School of Fin ...

in 2011. From 2011 to 2016 she was director of the Bingen/ Ingelheim and

Mainz Mainz () is the capital and largest city of Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. Mainz is on the left bank of the Rhine, opposite to the place that the Main (river), Main joins the Rhine. Downstream of the confluence, the Rhine flows to the north-we ...

regional markets of the Mainzer Volksbank and honorary commercial judge at the Mainz regional court.

Political career

Following the 2016 state elections, Schmitt joined the government of

Minister-President A minister-president or minister president is the head of government in a number of European countries or subnational governments with a parliamentary or semi-presidential system of government where they preside over the council of ministers. It ...

Malu Dreyer, deputising Minister Volker Wissing. Since 2013, she has also been deputy chairwoman of the FDP in Rhineland-Palatinate under Wissing's leadership and a member of the party's federal executive under the leadership of chairman

Christian Lindner Christian Wolfgang Lindner (born 7 January 1979) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) serving as the Federal Minister of Finance since 8 December 2021. He has been the party leader of the liberal FDP since 2013 and a Memb ...

. In 2020, Schmitt was nominated as the FDP's lead candidate for the

2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election The 2021 Rhineland-Palatinate state election was held on 14 March 2021 to elect the 18th Landtag of Rhineland-Palatinate. The outgoing government was a "traffic light coalition" of the Social Democratic Party (SPD), Free Democratic Party (FDP), a ...

. As one of the state's representatives at the Bundesrat since 2021, Schmitt serves on the Committee on Agriculture and Consumer Protection, the Committee on Economic Affairs and the Committee on Transport. She is also a member of the German-French Friendship Group set up by the Bundesrat and the French Senate as well as of the German-Polish Friendship Group set up in cooperation with the

Senate of Poland The Senate ( pl, Senat) is the upper house of the Parliament of Poland, Polish parliament, the lower house being the Sejm of the Republic of Poland, Sejm. The history of the Polish Senate stretches back over 500 years; it was one of the first co ...

. In the negotiations to form a so-called

traffic light coalition In German politics, a traffic light coalition (german: Ampelkoalition) is a coalition government of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD), the Free Democratic Party (FDP) and Alliance 90/The Greens. It is named after the parties' tra ...

of the

Social Democratic Party The name Social Democratic Party or Social Democrats has been used by many political parties in various countries around the world. Such parties are most commonly aligned to social democracy as their political ideology. Active parties For ...

(SPD), the

Green Party A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence. Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation ...

and the FDP on the national level following the 2021 German elections, Schmitt was part of her party's delegation in the working group on economic affairs, co-chaired by

Carsten Schneider Carsten Schneider (born 23 January 1976) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party who has been serving as a member of the German Parliament since 1998. Since 2021, he has also been serving as Parliamentary State Secretary for East Ge ...

Cem Özdemir Cem Özdemir (, ; born 21 December 1965) is a German politician who currently serves as Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture since 2021. He is a member of the Alliance 90/The Greens party. Between 2008 and 2018, Özdemir co-chaired the Gr ...

and Michael Theurer. Schmitt was nominated by her party as delegate to the

Federal Convention The Constitutional Convention took place in Philadelphia from May 25 to September 17, 1787. Although the convention was intended to revise the league of states and first system of government under the Articles of Confederation, the intention fr ...

for the purpose of electing the

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Other activities

* Germany Trade and Invest (GTAI), Member of the Supervisory BoardSupervisory Board
Germany Trade and Invest. *

University of Applied Sciences Bingen The Bingen Technical University of Applied Sciences (German: ''Technische Hochschule Bingen'') is a university located in Bingen am Rhein, Germany. It was founded in 1897. The University of Applied Sciences Bingen consists of two faculties: the f ...

, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2012)

References

1972 births Living people People from Alzey Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians 21st-century German politicians 21st-century German women politicians {{Germany-FDP-politician-stub