Stefan Birkner (born 12 April 1973 in

Münsterlingen Münsterlingen is a Municipalities of Switzerland, municipality in the district of Kreuzlingen (district), Kreuzlingen in the Cantons of Switzerland, canton of Thurgau in Switzerland. History In 1994 the municipality was created from Landschlacht ...

) is a German politician for the Free Democratic Party (FDP).

Political career

Birkner was elected to the State Parliament of Lower Saxony in the 2008 state elections. However, in February 2008 he left the Landtag to become a State Secretary for the State Minister of the Environment in the

second cabinet Wulff The Cabinet Wulff II was the state government of the German state of Lower Saxony from 26 February 2008 until 1 July 2010. The Cabinet was headed by Minister President Christian Wulff and was formed by the Christian Democratic Union and the Fre ...

Hans-Heinrich Sander Hans-Heinrich Sander (born 12 April 1945 in Golmbach, died 22 April 2017) was a German politician for the Free Democratic Party (German: Freie Demokratische Partei/FDP). He was elected to the Lower Saxon Landtag in 2003, and has been re-elected ...

. He was replaced by Christian Grascha. From January 2012 until 2013, he served as State Minister for Environment, Energy and Climate Protection in the government of Minister-President

David McAllister 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. He is the current Vice Pr ...

. In September 2017, Birkner succeeded

Christian Dürr Christian Dürr (born 18 April 1977) is a German politician of the Free Democratic Party (FDP) who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since 2017. Since December 2021 he has been leader of the FDP parliamentary group in the Bundestag. ...

as chairman of the FDP's parliamentary group. 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 Democrats Social democracy is a political, social, and economic philosophy within socialism that supports political and economic democracy. As a policy regime, it is described by academics as advocating economic and social interventions to promote so ...

(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 following the 2021 federal elections, Birkner led his party's delegation in the working group on environment policy; his co-chairs from the other parties were Rita Schwarzelühr-Sutter (

SPD 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 ...

) and

Steffi Lemke Steffi Lemke (born 19 January 1968) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as Federal Minister for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's cabinet ...

(

Bündnis 90/Die Grünen Alliance 90/The Greens (german: Bündnis 90/Die Grünen, ), often simply referred to as the Greens ( ), is a green political party in Germany. It was formed in 1993 as the merger of The Greens (formed in West Germany in 1980) and Alliance 90 (for ...

). Birkner was nominated by his 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 ...

.Drucksache 18/10450: Niedersächsische Mitglieder der 17. Bundesversammlung am 13. Februar 2022
State Parliament of Lower Saxony.

Other activities

* Federal Network Agency for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), Alternate Member of the Advisory Board (2012–2013)

References

* Free Democratic Party (Germany) politicians Members of the Landtag of Lower Saxony 1973 births Living people {{Germany-FDP-politician-stub