Tarek Mohammed Al-Wazir ( ar, طارق محمد الوزير; born 3 January 1971) is a politician in the

German Green Party 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 (fo ...

. Since January 2014 he has been deputy to the Hessian Minister-President, and Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development. He is a member of the

Landtag of Hesse The Landtag of Hesse (german: link=no, Hessischer Landtag) is the unicameral parliament of the State of Hesse in the Federal Republic of Germany. It convenes in the Stadtschloss in Wiesbaden. As a legislature it is responsible for passing l ...

and was co-chair of the Hessian Green Party.

Early life and education

Al-Wazir was born in Offenbach am Main, Hesse, the son of an upper-class

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

i father and a Sudeten German mother. He holds dual citizenship of Yemen and Germany. His parents divorced while he was a child, and he spent several years of his youth in the Yemeni capital (

Sana'a Sanaa ( ar, صَنْعَاء, ' , Yemeni Arabic: ; Old South Arabian: 𐩮𐩬𐩲𐩥 ''Ṣnʿw''), also spelled Sana'a or Sana, is the capital and largest city in Yemen and the centre of Sanaa Governorate. The city is not part of the Gover ...

) with his father, an experience he later described as very influential in his personal development. After his Abitur in 1991, he studied

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

in Frankfurt, where he earned a degree.

Political career

Al-Wazir joined the German Green Party in 1989, and has been a member ever since. From 1992 to 1994 he was chair of the party's youth organisation ( Green Youth) in Hesse. He has been a member of the

Landtag A Landtag (State Diet) is generally the legislative assembly or parliament of a federated state or other subnational self-governing entity in German-speaking nations. It is usually a unicameral assembly exercising legislative competence in non ...

since 1995 and is co-chair of the Hessian Green Party (with

Kordula Schulz-Asche Kordula Schulz-Asche (born 31 December 1956) is a German politician of Alliance 90/The Greens who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag from the state of Hesse since 2013. Early life and career Schulz-Asche was born in Berlin. After g ...

). He was the leader of the Greens during the Hesse state election of 2008, and as such was the Green candidate for the position 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. I ...

of Hesse. His party gained 7.5% of the votes. In the aftermath of the election, he pushed hard for a "red–green–red" coalition consisting 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 Fo ...

(SPD), the Greens, and Die Linke. This would have succeeded if not for an internal revolt by SPD members, forcing a new election in January 2009. In the

2009 elections The following elections occurred in the year 2009. * Electoral calendar 2009 * 2009 United Nations Security Council election Caribbean * 2009 Antiguan general election * 2009 Aruban general election * 2009 Caymanian constitutional referendu ...

, he again stood as the Green candidate for minister-president. Surveys showed Al-Wazir to be Hesse's most popular politician at the time of the vote. This time his party, also benefitting from popular anger at the SPD, increased its share to 13.7% of the vote, but the Greens remained out of government. On 18 January 2014, after the 2013 state elections, Al-Wazir became Deputy of the Hessian Minister-President Volker Bouffier and Hessian Minister of Economics, Energy, Transport and Regional Development in a Black-Green coalition. Thus they formed only the third CDU-Green government in Germany's 16 federal states and the first in a big and socially diverse region. As one of Hesse's representatives at the Bundesrat, Al-Wazir is a member of the Committee on Economic Affairs and the Committee on Transport. Al-Wazir was a Green Party delegate to the Federal Convention for 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 ...

in 2017. 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

(SPD), the Green Party and the Free Democratic Party (FDP) following the 2021 German elections, Al-Wazir was part of his party's delegation in the working group on mobility, co-chaired by

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 elect ...

Anton Hofreiter Anton "Toni" Hofreiter (born 2 February 1970) is a German politician who has been serving as a member of the Bundestag since the 2005 elections. Political career As a member of Alliance 90/The Greens, Hofreiter has been a member of the Bundes ...

and Oliver Luksic.

Other activities (selection)

Regulatory agencies

Federal Network Agency The Federal Network Agency (german: Bundesnetzagentur or ) is the German regulatory office for electricity, gas, telecommunications, post and railway markets. It is a federal agency of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Acti ...

for Electricity, Gas, Telecommunications, Post and Railway (BNetzA), member of the Advisory Board

Corporate boards

Helaba Helaba, short for Landesbank Hessen-Thüringen, is a commercial bank with core regions in Hesse and Thuringia, Germany offering financial services to companies, banks, institutional investors and the public sector, both within Germany and interna ...

, alternate member of the supervisory board * HA Hessen Agentur GmbH, chair of the supervisory board *

Messe Frankfurt Messe Frankfurt () is the world's largest trade fair, congress and event organizer with its own exhibition grounds. The organisation has 2,500 employees at some 30 locations, generating annual sales of around €661 million. Its services inclu ...

, member of the supervisory board * Wirtschafts- und Infrastrukturbank Hessen (WIBank), chair of the advisory board

Non-profit organizations

Hessischer Rundfunk Hessischer Rundfunk (HR; "Hesse Broadcasting") is the German state of Hesse's public broadcasting corporation. Headquartered in Frankfurt, it is a member of the national consortium of German public broadcasting corporations, ARD. Studios Do ...

, member of the broadcasting council * Frankfurt Main Finance, member of the presidium *

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

, Member of the Board of trustees * Stiftung Schloss Ettersburg, member of the board of trustees

Personal life

Al-Wazir is married to a Yemeni woman, with whom he has two sons. They also split time between Germany and Yemen. Al-Wazir's surname has been an aptronym since he assumed ministerial office in 2014, as "''al-wazīr''" is Arabic for "the government minister."

References

External links

Homepage of Tarek Al-Wazir
1971 births Alliance 90/The Greens politicians Living people German people of Yemeni descent People from Offenbach am Main Members of the Landtag of Hesse Ministers of the Hesse State Government {{Alliance 90/The Greens