David James McAllister (born 12 January 1971) is a German politician who has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014. He is a member of the Christian Democratic Union, part of the

European People's Party The European People's Party (EPP) is a European political party with Christian-democratic, conservative, and liberal-conservative member parties. A transnational organisation, it is composed of other political parties. Founded by primarily Ch ...

. He is the current vice president of the

and he is also vice chairman of the International Democrat Union. He was appointed Chair of the European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee in February 2017. On 1 July 2010 McAllister was elected Minister-President of the state of Lower Saxony, succeeding Christian Wulff, who resigned following his election as President of Germany. Until his election defeat on 19 February 2013, he headed a coalition government with the liberal FDP, the Cabinet McAllister. In the 2014 European elections, McAllister was elected a Member of the European Parliament as the CDU's top candidate in Lower Saxony. A lawyer by profession, he served as chairman of the CDU parliamentary group in the Lower Saxon Parliament from 2003 to 2010 and was elected chairman of the state party in 2008. In November 2016 he left the chairman post, and announced that he sees his political future in Europe. McAllister holds both German and British citizenship. Following his election as Minister-President, he was described as a rising star in the CDU and, at the time, as a potential successor to Angela Merkel. He has more recently been mentioned as a possible future

European Commissioner A European Commissioner is a member of the 27-member European Commission. Each member within the Commission holds a specific portfolio. The commission is led by the President of the European Commission. In simple terms they are the equivalent ...

, however this became impossible when his countrywoman, Ursula von der Leyen, was elected

President of the European Commission The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

and

2024 Predicted and scheduled events * January 1 ** In the United States, books, films, and other works published in 1928 will enter the public domain, assuming there are no changes made to copyright law. ***''Steamboat Willie'', Walt Disney's fi ...

Early life

McAllister was born in West Berlin on 12 January 1971 to a

Scottish Scottish usually refers to something of, from, or related to Scotland, including: *Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family native to Scotland *Scottish English *Scottish national identity, the Scottish ide ...

father and a German mother. His father, James Buchanan McAllister, who was originally from Glasgow (where the family still has relatives), was a British civil servant. From 1969, James McAllister worked in West Berlin, while attached to the British Army's

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

. David McAllister's mother, Mechthild McAllister, is a music teacher. He was raised bilingually and attended a British primary school in Berlin. In a 2010 interview he linked his family's name to Clan MacAlister. After his parents moved to the small town of Bad Bederkesa in Lower Saxony in 1982, he went to the Lower Saxony ''Internatsgymnasium'' (boarding school) in Bederkesa, where he took his

Abitur ''Abitur'' (), often shortened colloquially to ''Abi'', is a qualification granted at the end of secondary education in Germany. It is conferred on students who pass their final exams at the end of ISCED 3, usually after twelve or thirteen year ...

in 1989. From 1989 till 1991, McAllister served his compulsory military service in the Bundeswehr, in Panzerbataillon 74 in Cuxhaven. From 1991–96 he studied law with a scholarship from the Konrad Adenauer Foundation at the

Leibniz University Hannover Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz University Hannover (german: Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Universität), also known as the University of Hannover, is a public research university located in Hanover, Germany. Founded on 2 May 1831 as Higher Vocational Sc ...

. In 1994, McAllister became local chairman of the CDU youth organisation, Junge Union, in the

Cuxhaven district Cuxhaven is a district (''Landkreis'') in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is bounded by (from the east and clockwise) the districts of Stade, Rotenburg, Osterholz and Wesermarsch, the city of Bremerhaven and the North Sea. History The district was ...

. McAllister holds both German and British citizenship and speaks both German and English as native languages, although he has stated that he's "more or less completely German. I've lived in Germany all my life. I did all my school in Germany and my military service in Germany." His upbringing in West Berlin, however, he describes as "very British" with "British network, British schools". Holding dual citizenship, he could have relinquished his German citizenship to avoid compulsory military service in Germany (the UK does not have compulsory military service), but opted to serve instead. McAllister has said that "my upbringing in West Berlin may have had an impact on my resentment towards communists. I became a member of the CDU when I was 17 – it was a birthday present. My parents said, 'What do you want for your birthday?’ I said I wanted to become a member of the CDU", explaining that his father was a conservative, although neither of his parents were involved in party politics.

Political career

From 1996 till 2010, McAllister was a member of the

council (Kreistag). He served as mayor of his hometown of Bad Bederkesa from 2001 to 2002. From 2002 to 2003, he also was secretary general of the CDU in Lower Saxony. Since 2003, McAllister has served as the leader of the CDU parliamentary party group in the Parliament of Lower Saxony, of which he has been a member since 1998. McAllister succeeded Christian Wulff as party chairman of the CDU in Lower Saxony from June 2008 until November 2016. He was succeeded by Bernd Althusmann. In the United Kingdom, McAllister is a supporter of the Conservative Party. In 2005, Chancellor Angela Merkel offered him the position of Secretary General of the CDU, but McAllister declined, arguing he did not want to rise too far too fast. He was a CDU 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 in 2004, 2009, 2010 and 2012.

Minister-President of Lower Saxony, 2010–2013

On 4 June 2010, McAllister was designated by his party to succeed Christian Wulff as Minister-President of Lower Saxony, if the latter were to be elected President of Germany on 30 June. After the election of Wulff as president, David McAllister was elected the new Minister-President of Lower Saxony the following day. He was subsequently also appointed to the supervisory board of Volkswagen, the largest company in Lower Saxony and of which the state of Lower Saxony is a major stockholder. From 2010 until 2013, he also served as a member of the supervisory board of Volkswagen. In December 2012, McAllister presided over the CDU’s national convention in Hanover. Following the

2013 Lower Saxony state election The 2013 Lower Saxony state election was held on 20 January 2013 to elect the members of the 17th Landtag of Lower Saxony. The incumbent coalition government of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany, Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Free D ...

, McAllister's CDU-FDP Coalition lost control of the Landtag, which meant that the Christian Democrats and the Free Democrats eventually lost the government role. On 19 February 2013, Stephan Weil of the

Social Democratic Party of Germany The Social Democratic Party of Germany (german: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands, ; SPD, ) is a centre-left social democratic political party in Germany. It is one of the major parties of contemporary Germany. Saskia Esken has been the ...

(SPD) was elected Minister-President of Lower Saxony with the votes of SPD and

Alliance '90/The Greens Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a Green politics, green List of political parties in Germany, political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens ...

. He resigned in March 2014 to prepare for the European parliament election, where he was the lead candidate for the CDU/CSU. Following the 2013 German elections, McAllister was part of the CDU/CSU team in the negotiations with the SPD on a coalition agreement.

Member of the European Parliament, 2014–present

As a Member of the European Parliament, McAllister serves as chairman of the Delegation for Relations with the United States and as member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In this capacity, he is the parliament's rapporteur on Serbia. In addition, he is a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on SMEs. He became vice chairman of the International Democrat Union in 2014. In October 2015 he was elected vice president of the

. In this capacity, he co-chairs (alongside Joseph Daul), the EPP's Working Group on European Policy. Since 2017, McAllister has been serving as chairman of the Committee on Foreign Affairs, following

Elmar Brok Elmar Peter Brok (born 14 May 1946) is a German politician who served as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) from 1980 until 2019, who is best known for his role as chairman of the European Parliament Committee on Foreign Affairs. He is a ...

. In this capacity, he also co-chairs – first alongside Linda McAvan (2017-2019), later Tomas Tobé (since 2019) – the Democracy Support and Election Coordination Group (DEG), which oversees the Parliament's election observation missions. Within his own political group, he has been co-chairing the EPP Foreign Affairs Ministers Meeting since 2017, alongside Simon Coveney. In the negotiations to form a

coalition government A coalition government is a form of government in which political parties cooperate to form a government. The usual reason for such an arrangement is that no single party has achieved an absolute majority after an election, an atypical outcome in ...

following the 2017 federal elections, McAllister was part of the CDU/CSU delegation in the working group on European policy, led by Peter Altmaier, Alexander Dobrindt and

Achim Post Achim Post (born 2 May 1959) is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia since 2013. Political career Post became a member of the Bundes ...

. Following the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

, McAllister was part of a cross-party working group in charge of drafting the European Parliament's four-year work program on foreign policy.

Other activities

Corporate boards

* Matthai Verwaltungs-GmbH * Volkswagen, ex-officio Member of the Supervisory Board (2010–2013)

Non-profit organizations

* Friends of Europe, Member of the Board of Trustees (since 2020) * German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP), Member of the Presidium (since 2019) * European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), Member * European Leadership Network (ELN), Member * European Youth Parliament – Germany, Member of the Board of Trustees * Konrad Adenauer Foundation, Member

Political positions

Following Brexit, McAllister joined Manfred Weber,

Esteban González Pons Esteban González Pons (Valencia, Spain, Valencia, Spain, 21 August 1964) is a Spanish politician of the People's Party (Spain), People's Party (PP) who has been a Member of the European Parliament since 2014. Early life and career Married, and w ...

and Sandra Kalniete in co-signing a letter to President of the European Parliament David Sassoli to establish an EU-UK Joint Parliamentary Assembly. In 2021, he joined forces with

Terry Reintke Theresa Reintke (born 9 May 1987) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the European Parliament from Germany since 2014. She is co-president of the Greens/EFA Group in the European Parliament. She is a member of the Alliance ...

and Radosław Sikorski in initiating a letter of 145 member of the European Parliament to

Commission President The president of the European Commission is the head of the European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union (EU). The President of the Commission leads a Cabinet of Commissioners, referred to as the College, collectively account ...

Ursula von der Leyen and Education Commissioner Mariya Gabriel in which they called for allowing Scotland and Wales to rejoin the European Union’s Erasmus+ mobility scheme. In a joint letter initiated by Norbert Röttgen and Anthony Gonzalez ahead of the

47th G7 summit The 47th G7 summit was held from 11 to 13 June 2021 in Cornwall, England, during the United Kingdom's tenure of the presidency of the Group of Seven (G7), an inter-governmental political forum of seven advanced nations. The participants include ...

in 2021, McAllister joined some 70 legislators from Europe, the US and Japan in calling upon their leaders to take a tough stance on China and to "avoid becoming dependent" on the country for technology including artificial intelligence and 5G.

Personal life

McAllister is married to Dunja McAllister, née Kolleck, who is also a lawyer. He lives in Bad Bederkesa in the district of Cuxhaven. He supports Rangers FC and

Hannover 96 Hannoverscher Sportverein von 1896, commonly referred to as Hannover 96 (), Hannover, HSV or simply 96, is a German professional football club based in the city of Hanover, Lower Saxony. They played in the Bundesliga for a total of 30 years betwe ...

Honours

* Honorary doctorate, University of Edinburgh, 2012

References

External links

Homepage of David McAllisterState Chancellery
, - , - {{DEFAULTSORT:McAllister, David 1971 births Christian Democratic Union of Germany politicians David German people of Norwegian descent German people of Scottish descent German Protestants Living people Minister-presidents of Lower Saxony Mayors of places in Lower Saxony Members of the Landtag of Lower Saxony Scottish politicians Scottish Protestants Volkswagen Group people MEPs for Germany 2019–2024 MEPs for Germany 2014–2019 Politicians from Berlin Christian Democratic Union of Germany MEPs 20th-century German military personnel MEPs for Germany 2024–2029