A good month after taking office, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius is ahead of all other members of the government in the popularity list. Why is that?
Boris Pistorius visiting the Altengrabow military training area
Only a few weeks after taking office as Defense Minister (on January 19), Social Democrat Boris Pistorius is Germany's most popular politician. In a Forsa survey commissioned by RTL Germany, he immediately made it to number 1 in the politician ranking. The question was whether the participants saw the country “in good hands” with this politician.
Pistorius also took the top spot right away in a telephone poll published by ZDF among 1,361 eligible voters about the most popular politicians. In addition to Chancellor Olaf Scholz, also SPD, he has also overtaken two popular Green politicians: Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock and Economics Minister Robert Habeck.
Boris Pistorius becomes the new Federal Minister of Defense
The 62-year-old took over after his predecessor, Christine Lambrecht, resigned following a series of political embarrassments. After more than a decade as interior minister of the northern German state of Lower Saxony, Pistorius suddenly found himself in the limelight. Because the war in Ukraine and thus German defense policy are dominating the political debate.
Surprising election as defense minister
Like her predecessors from the conservative CDU, Christine Lambrecht became minister at a time when national defense was no longer considered particularly important, Gero Neugebauer, a political scientist at Freie Universität Berlin, told DW. It was about administering the Bundeswehr at a low level.
Pistorius took office under completely different circumstances and was quickly able to score points with conservative-minded Germans, Gebauer analyses.
Because Pistorius was little known to many in Germany and abroad, he was considered a surprising choice for defense minister. By appointing a man, Chancellor Olaf Scholz broke his promise to maintain gender parity in the cabinet.
01/19/2023: Chancellor Olaf Scholz (left) smiles at the change in leadership of the Ministry of Defense from Christine Lambrecht (right .) to Boris Pistorius (2nd from right)
Pistorius, a law graduate and former mayor of the city of Osnabrück, comes from the “Law and Order” wing of his party. He did his compulsory military service in 1980/81, but has no extensive military experience.
Prior to his appointment, he was unfamiliar with federal politics, much less international politics. Johann Wadephul, deputy leader of the conservative CDU/CSU in the Bundestag, teased that he was a candidate from the “B-Team”.
Pistorius certainly had a reputation as a politician who pushed things through. He was responsible for introducing major reforms to the Lower Saxony police force, hiring new staff and improving community outreach. As Minister of the Interior, he set priorities in combating political extremism.
Close ties with Federal Chancellor Scholz
When appointing Pistorius, Scholz, who also comes from Osnabrück, called his new minister a “Outstanding Politician”. “With his experience, competence and assertiveness as well as his big heart, he is exactly the right person for the Bundeswehr at this turning point,” said Scholz.
Like Scholz, Pistorius ran for the SPD presidency in 2019 – and lost. However, the latest polls show that Pistorius is now way ahead.
Pistorius: “This West is not as weak as Putin would like it to be”
After his first appearance as defense minister At the Munich Security Conference last weekend, the Neue Zürcher Zeitung reported that Pistorius was being hailed as the potential “leader” the German army needed.
“Pistorius communicates clearly and directly, but not in a way that makes others feel offended,” political scientist Neugebauer told DW. “He is demanding but not a braggart and often meets with the soldiers in person, which has earned him a reputation for caring.”
This clear and direct communication was evident in Munich, when Pistorius announced that “Ukraine must win this war” – while Chancellor Scholz says: “Ukraine must not lose the war. Russia must not win the war.”
Pistorius reiterated Germany's commitment to meet NATO's target of 2 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) for military spending – German military spending reached about 1.5 percent of GDP in 2022, it was last estimated. “By 2025 we will provide NATO with an entire army division,” he added.
Visit to Ukraine: Boris Pistorius (right) with President Volodymyr Zelenskyi
At the beginning of February, around two weeks after taking office, the Defense Minister of Ukraine paid an unannounced visit – his first trip abroad in this capacity. Pistorius met with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and his counterpart Oleksiy Reznikov and announced a plan to supply more than 100 Leopard 1A5 tanks, in addition to the already approved supply of modern Leopard 2 main battle tanks to Ukraine.
< p>This week Pistorius paid a visit to Ukrainian troops who are being trained on German weapons systems in Munster, in northern Germany. “Talking about a war is different from looking into the faces of people who… came here straight from the front lines and who will return there with the tanks once they have completed their training,” he said reporters.
In Kiev, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius congratulated a Ukrainian soldier who was awarded a medal
One of the biggest challenges for the defense minister will be managing the €100 billion special fund that Scholz gave to the German armed forces in February promised 2022.
Pistorius says this sum is not enough – he is demanding an additional ten billion euros for the defense budget (currently a good 50 billion euros) in order to rebuild the military after more than three decades of chronic neglect and underfunding.
Before the upcoming budget negotiations for 2024 and 2025 in March, there are already signs of a dispute within the governing party about the distribution of the funds. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, SPD leader Saskia Esken indicated certain limits to Pistorius' demands. She emphasized coalition projects such as combating child poverty.
It remains to be seen whether the Minister of Defense will be able to assert himself.
Political scientist Neugebauer characterizes him as follows: “Pistorius had no grace period, he knew that he wouldn't get one and he didn't ask for one either: he's a doer. If the piano needs to be moved to another room in the home, he's not the one to carry the sheet music.”
This article first appeared in English and was adapted into German.