Prime Minister Malu Dreyer announces resignation

Merkur Prime Minister Malu Dreyer announces resignation 47 million • 1 minute reading time The SPD politician Malu Dreyer is resigning as Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate. Her successor is said to have already been decided. Mainz - The Prime Minister of Rhineland-Palatinate, Malu Dreyer (SPD), has announced her resignation. Her successor in July will be the current State Minister for Labor and Social Affairs, Transformation and Digitization, Alexander Schweitzer (SPD), as the German Press Agency learned from government circles. "Die Rheinpfalz", "Spiegel" and "Die Zeit" had previously reported on this. Such a step by Dreyer had been speculated about for some time. Dreyer wants to speak at a press conference in Mainz this afternoon (2 p.m.). Who is Schweitzer? The 63-year-old Dreyer has been head of government in Rhineland-Palatinate since 2013, when she succeeded Kurt Beck. She currently leads a traffic light coalition of the SPD, the Greens and the FDP. According to information from the daily newspaper "Rheinpfalz", Schweitzer is set to stand for election as Prime Minister in the state parliament before the parliamentary summer break. The next state election in Rhineland-Palatinate is scheduled to take place in spring 2026. Schweitzer would thus have the chance to go into this election as a high-profile head of government. Schweitzer, who comes from Landau in the southern Palatinate, has been represented in the Rhineland-Palatinate cabinet again since the government was formed after the 2021 state election. The 50-year-old had already been a minister in 2013 and 2014, and in the meantime he was leader of the SPD parliamentary group in the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament. In addition to Schweitzer, Interior Minister Michael Ebling and the current parliamentary group leader Sabine Bätzing-Lichtenthäler (both SPD) were also considered as Dreyer's successors. dpa