Silvia Breher ( Lucke; born 23 July 1973) is a German lawyer and politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). She has been 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 Common ...

for the constituency of Cloppenburg – Vechta since the 2017 federal election. At the CDU conference in November 2019 she was elected as one of the deputy leaders of her party; she succeeded

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; Albrecht, born 8 October 1958) is a German politician who has been serving as the president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding suc ...

who had been elected to the Presidency of the European Commission.

Early life and career

Breher was born in

Löningen Löningen () is a town in the district of Cloppenburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. The town is situated on the river Hase, approx. 25 km southwest of Cloppenburg. History Löningen originally appeared in 822 as Loingo. The name Löningen was m ...

and grew up on a farm in Lindern. After gaining her Abitur at Copernicus Gymnasium in Löningen she studied law at the

Osnabrück University Osnabrück University (german: Universität Osnabrück) is a public research university located in the city of Osnabrück in Lower Saxony, Germany. In 2011 it was attended by 11,034 students; the staff of 1,858 consisted of 209 professors, 936 ...

. At the end of 2000 she began practicing as a self-employed lawyer. From 2011 till 2017 she was the Chief Executive of the "Kreislandsvolkverbandes Vechta", the local farmers' union.

Political career

Breher is a member of the Christian Democratic Union and of her local CDU organisation in

Cloppenburg Cloppenburg (; nds, Cloppenborg; stq, Kloppenbuurich) is a town in Lower Saxony, Germany, capital of Cloppenburg District and part of Oldenburg Münsterland. It lies 38 km south-south-west of Oldenburg in the Weser-Ems region between Brem ...

. Between 2014 and 2015 she was a member of the CDU Commission ''Nachhaltig leben – Lebensqualität bewahren''''.'' Since 2018 Breher has been the leader of the Cloppenburg CDU district association and the Löningen CDU association. In March 2019 she was elected leader of the Oldenburg CDU state association and thus member of the State Executive of the CDU in Lower Saxony, under the leadership of chairman Bernd Althusmann. As successor of Franz-Josef Holzenkamp, Breher was selected as the CDU candidate for Cloppenburg – Vechta for the 2017 federal elections. She subsequently won the election with the highest vote share in the country, 57.7 percent. Her constituency is seen as a CDU safe seat, with her party winning the constituency uninterrupted since 1953. In parliament, she has been a member of the Committee on Food and Agriculture (2018–2021) as well as a member of the Committee on Family, Senior Citizens, Women and Youth (since 2018). Amid the

COVID-19 pandemic in Germany The COVID-19 pandemic in Germany has resulted in confirmed cases of COVID-19 and deaths. On 27 January 2020, the first case in Germany was confirmed near Munich, Bavaria. By mid February, the arising cluster of cases had been fully containe ...

, Breher co-chaired – alongside

Tobias Hans Tobias Hans (born 1 February 1978) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) who served as Minister-President of Saarland from 2018 to 2022. Political career Hans became a member of the Landtag of Saarland after the Saar ...

, Hendrik Hoppenstedt,

Yvonne Magwas Yvonne Magwas (born 28 November 1979) is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU). A member of the German Bundestag since 2013, she has been its Vice President as of October 2021. Education and early career Yvonne Magwas gre ...

and

Paul Ziemiak Paul Ziemiak (born 6 September 1985 as ''Paweł Ziemiak'') is a German politician of the Christian Democratic Union of Germany (CDU) who has been serving as a member of the German Bundestag since the 2017 federal election. In addition to his pa ...

– the CDU's first ever digital national convention in 2021. Ahead of the 2021 elections, CDU chairman

Armin Laschet Armin Laschet (; born 18 February 1961) is a German politician who served as Minister President of North Rhine-Westphalia from 27 June 2017 to 26 October 2021. He served as Leader of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) from 22 January 2021 to 3 ...

included Breher in his eight-member shadow cabinet for the Christian Democrats' campaign.

Political positions

In September 2017, Breher supported

same-sex marriages Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. In April 2020, she co-signed – alongside around 50 other members of her parliamentary group – a letter to President of the European Commission

which called on the European Union to take in children who were living in migrant camps across Greece. For the 2021 national elections, Breher endorsed

as the Christian Democrats' joint candidate to succeed Chancellor

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 Opp ...

.Reinhard Bingener (19 April 2021)
Landesverband für Söder: Laschets Niederlage in Niedersachsen
''

Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung The ''Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung'' (; ''FAZ''; "''Frankfurt General Newspaper''") is a centre-right conservative-liberal and liberal-conservativeHans Magnus Enzensberger: Alter Wein in neuen Schläuchen' (in German). ''Deutschland Radio'', ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Breher, Silvia 1973 births Living people Female members of the Bundestag Members of the Bundestag for Lower Saxony People from Cloppenburg (district) 21st-century German women politicians Members of the Bundestag 2017–2021 Members of the Bundestag 2021–2025 Members of the Bundestag for the Christian Democratic Union of Germany