Peter Bleser (born 23 July 1952) is a German farmer and

politician A politician is a person active in party politics, or a person holding or seeking an elected office in government. Politicians propose, support, reject and create laws that govern the land and by an extension of its people. Broadly speaking, a ...

of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as a member of the

Bundestag The Bundestag (, "Federal Diet") is the German federal parliament. It is the only federal representative body that is directly elected by the German people. It is comparable to the United States House of Representatives or the House of Commons ...

from 1990 until 2021, representing Mosel/Rhein-Hunsrück.

Political career

From 1990 until 2011, Bleser served on the Committee on Food and Agriculture. He was also a member of the Committee on European Affairs between 1990 and 1998. In addition to his committee assignments, Bleser was a member of the German-French Parliamentary Friendship Group, the German-Russian Parliamentary Friendship Group and the German-Brazilian Parliamentary Friendship Group between 1990 and 2002. In 2011, Bleser succeeded

Julia Klöckner Julia Klöckner (born 16 December 1972) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection in the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel from 2018 to 2021. ...

as Parliamentary State secretary at the

Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection The Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (german: Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft, ), abbreviated BMEL, is a cabinet-level ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany. Its primary headquarters are located in Bonn with ...

under minister

Ilse Aigner Ilse Aigner (born 7 December 1964) is a German politician and member of the Christian Social Union of Bavaria (CSU). Aigner was born in Feldkirchen-Westerham, Bavaria, and entered Angela Merkel's grand coalition cabinet as Federal Minister of ...

(2008–2013) in the

second The second (symbol: s) is the unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), historically defined as of a day – this factor derived from the division of the day first into 24 hours, then to 60 minutes and finally to 60 seconds ...

cabinet of

Chancellor Chancellor ( la, cancellarius) is a title of various official positions in the governments of many nations. The original chancellors were the of Roman courts of justice—ushers, who sat at the or lattice work screens of a basilica or law cou ...

Angela Merkel Angela Dorothea Merkel (; ; born 17 July 1954) is a German former politician and scientist who served as Chancellor of Germany from 2005 to 2021. A member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), she previously served as Leader of the Oppo ...

. He later also served under minister Christian Schmidt from 2013. In this capacity, he oversaw the ministry’s activities on nutrition, consumer protection, agriculture, animal welfare and EU policies. Following the 2013 elections, Bleser was elected chairman of the Bundestag group of CDU parliamentarians from Rhineland-Palatinate. Shortly after his re-election in

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

, Bleser had his parliamentary immunity lifted when prosecutors launched an investigation against him for suspected breach of trust and party financing laws. According to investigators, Bleser was alleged to have accepted some €56,000 ($66,000) in illegal donations from

Werner Mauss Werner Mauss (born 11 February 1940) is a German former private investigator and civilian employee for police The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health ...

between 2004 and 2015, first as the chairman of the CDU's district association in Cochem-Zell and then as the party's treasurer in Rhineland-Palatinate. 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, Bleser was part of the working group on agriculture, led by

, Christian Schmidt and

Anke Rehlinger Anke Gabriele Rehlinger ('' né'' Moos; born 6 April 1976) is a German lawyer and politician of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) who has served as the Minister-President of Saarland since 25 April 2022. After her party won the 2022 state elec ...

. He was replaced at the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection by Hans-Joachim Fuchtel. After leaving his government post in 2018, he served on the Committee on Economic Affairs and Energy. In this capacity, he was his parliamentary group’s

rapporteur A rapporteur is a person who is appointed by an organization to report on the proceedings of its meetings. The term is a French-derived word. For example, Dick Marty was appointed ''rapporteur'' by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Euro ...

on foreign trade; the

circular economy A circular economy (also referred to as circularity and CE) is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. CE aims ...

;

renewable energy Renewable energy is energy that is collected from renewable resources that are naturally replenished on a human timescale. It includes sources such as sunlight, wind, the movement of water, and geothermal heat. Although most renewable energy ...

; and government procurement. In addition to his committee assignments, he served as deputy chairman of the German-Ukrainian Parliamentary Friendship Group from 2018 until 2021. In late 2019, Bleser announced that he would not stand in the 2021 federal elections but instead resign from active politics by the end of the parliamentary term.Daniel Rühle (September 29, 2019)
Cochem-Zeller Christdemokraten haben gewählt: Anke Beilstein ist alte und neue CDU-Kreisvorsitzende
''Rhein-Zeitung'', July 10, 2019.

Other activities

KfW The KfW, which together with its subsidiaries DEG, KfW IPEX-Bank and FuB forms the KfW Bankengruppe ("banking group"), is a German state-owned investment bank, investment and Development finance institution, development bank, based in Frankfurt ...

, Ex-Officio Member of the Board of Supervisory Directors (since 2011) * Deutscher Raiffeisenverband (DRV), Member of the Presidium (2008-2011) * Raiffeisenbank Kaisersesch-Kaifenheim, Chairman of the Supervisory Board (2002-2011)

References

External links