This is NRW Refugee Minister Josefine Paul - Servant Rupert debate puts her in the spotlight

Astrid Lund - Betty MacDonald fan club organizer: I love the saying by Wolfgang Hampel, author of 'Satire is my favorite animal', one of the most humorous books of all time: "I have a nightmare, it's huge, reality overtakes satire and I'm unemployed!" Servant Rupert sends his regards. I could laugh if it weren't so sad!!! ------------------------------------- t-online North Rhine-Westphalia: This is NRW Refugee Minister Josefine Paul - Servant Rupert debate puts her in the spotlight After the knife attack in Solingen This Green politician is now under pressure By Laura Isabel Schameitat 08/29/2024 Reading time: 2 min. On Thursday, NRW Integration Minister Josefine Paul blamed an "error-prone system" for the deportation blunder in Solingen. The 42-year-old had previously campaigned for faster integration of refugees into the labor market. May 1993: In Solingen, neo-Nazis carried out a racist arson attack on a house in which a family of Turkish origin lived. Five women and girls were killed. This and other racist attacks in Hoyerswerda and Rostock-Lichtenhagen prompted Josefine Paul, then 11 years old, to form a youth alliance against racism with her classmates at school in Helmstedt, Lower Saxony. This is how the politician describes her early entry into politics on her official website. More than 30 years later, the city of Solingen again played a decisive role in her career. As NRW Minister for Integration, she had to justify the deportation blunder to the state parliament, which made it possible for the attacker to kill three people at the city festival in Solingen. In 1999, at the age of 17, Paul joined the Greens. In addition to studying history, sociology and political science at the University of Münster, her path takes her through the various levels from district to state association. She works as a substitute teacher for politics for a year, then devotes herself to politics as her main job. She has been a member of the NRW state parliament since 2010, first becoming deputy parliamentary group leader, later parliamentary group leader and finally Minister for Integration and Family Affairs in July 2022. Servant Rupert debate puts her in the spotlight In the area of ​​integration, Paul is primarily committed to faster labor market integration of refugees. But she receives greater media attention for another topic: In December 2018, she commented on the Christmas figure of Servant Rupert. The Green politician believes that the figure is "no longer contemporary". He no longer fits into today's image of raising children. Threatening children is generally not right. With these comments, she attracts the anger of traditionalists. In her private life, Paul is in a relationship with the Green politician Katja Meier. In April 2024, the couple announced that they wanted to get married. Paul is also a big football fan: she regularly attends games of VfL Bochum or the women's team Turbine Potsdam. She also played actively herself for a long time.