An uncertain future: What will happen to Germany’s Feminist Foreign Policy?
By Anna-Magdalena Glockzin, 4 minutes.
Following the German elections in February, the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), its Bavarian sister party CSU (Christian Social Union), and the SPD (Social Democratic Party) have now agreed to form a coalition, the so-called GroKo (Grand Coalition). This agreement is a success, considering the months of uncertainty and stagnation under Scholz’s minority government. Before the new government can take office, the SPD’s membership has to approve the agreement and a CDU convention has to be held. In the meantime, names of potential candidates for the ministries are already being discussed. The Foreign Ministry will be filled by the CDU, with three potential male candidates for this post. Considering Germany’s Feminist Foreign Policy (FFP), adopted by Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (The Greens), the question arises of what will happen to this policy approach, as an ideological shift to the right took place in the government, materialising also in the Federal Foreign Office.
Germany’s Feminist Foreign Policy
In the coalition agreement of the “traffic light” government from 2021, the parties announced that they aim to adopt a feminist foreign policy, following the FFP pioneer Sweden. In 2023, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Development Minister Svenja Schulze presented their FFP guidelines, stressing the importance of mainstreaming a gendered perspective into policymaking. This means that the needs, the rights and the realities of life for girls, women and other marginalised groups of society like the LGBTQIA+ community or ethnic minorities are taken into account in political decision-making. Whether Baerbock and Schulze actually followed this approach in all their political actions is debatable, but in general, more attention was given to inclusivity and intersectionality in the foreign and development policy domain.
CDU’s candidates for the Federal Foreign Office
The new government, led by the Christian Democrats, will be more conservative in, for example, taking a tougher stance on migration. This political shift is also underlined in the three candidates that are currently being discussed, they are all older white men, suggesting that there will be a conservative turn in Germany’s foreign policy approach. The following will present the three men shortly.
Johann Wadephul
The first candidate is Johann Wadephul, who is the most likely pick for the foreign ministry. He focuses on foreign and defence policy and has a year-long experience as a CDU lawmaker and deputy parliamentary group leader. Furthermore, he has good ties to Washington and Brussels, which is regarded as an asset, and is considered a close confidant of Chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz.
Johann Wadephul at the CDU Party Conference 2016 in Essen
By Olaf Kosinsky - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96076824
Armin Laschet
Armin Laschet is a former CDU leader and was the premier of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia. In 2021, the former head of the CDU and chancellor candidate lost the elections but remained active in the sphere of international politics until today. A ministry post now would constitute his political comeback.
Jens Spahn
Jens Spahn is a CDU deputy parliamentary group leader at the moment. He is a rather unusual choice, as he is not a foreign policy specialist. For instance, he was the health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic in the Merkel government. Nonetheless, he is very well connected in the U.S., particularly with the Republicans, which could be an advantage in building ties to the Trump administration.
Will FFP be abandoned?
Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has pointed out several times that he does not consider FFP a fitting approach to counter serious security threats, geopolitical tensions and war. This signals that FFP might not have a future in the new government. The three candidates, of which Wadephul is the most likely one, stand for more conservative policymaking. This is confirmed by the foreign policy objectives set out in the new coalition agreement, which does not mention FFP or similar approaches. Therefore, the most probable scenario is that the new minister will abandon feminist foreign policy. In this way, Germany would once again follow Sweden’s path - this time, however, in abandoning FFP. When the new Swedish centre-right government took office in October 2022, the new foreign minister likewise abandoned FFP, arguing that “labels on things have the tendency to cover up the content” and that they still regard gender equality as a core value.
The next weeks will show who will follow Annalena Baerbock in the Federal Foreign Office. One thing seems clear: there will be a change in the approach to policymaking in Germany, which could mark the end of mainstreaming a feminist perspective on the global political stage.
