The wife of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Britta Ernst, also a Social Democrat (SPD), has resigned as Minister of Education for the Land of Brandenburg due to a lack of support for her education policy and plans to address the shortage of teaching staff.
“I am resigning so that a fresh start can be made with a new person at the head of the ministry,” Ernst explained in a personal statement. “It is very clear to me that we have to ensure education in all regions of Brandenburg and the proposals put forward in this regard have not found the support of the SPD parliamentary group,” he lamented. He also did not have the support of the conservatives (CDU) and the Greens, parties that form the tripartite government, as well as the teachers’ and parents’ associations.
Ernst, who many considered untouchable as the chancellor’s wife, has always been in the eye of the storm. The pressure has increased in recent weeks due to her plans to deal with the severe teacher shortage in Brandenburg. Among them was the redeployment of 200 teaching positions for administrative staff and school social workers throughout Brandenburg. To make it possible, all schools had to cut staff. This would have especially affected support and full-time programs, as well as inclusion.
The resistance of the schools and the parents to those plans was enormous, but Ernst gambled big and even threatened to resign before the parliamentary group led by Daniel Keller if the party did not support his plans. He hasn’t.
For the SPD, vacancies in this key department are dangerous just a year before the state elections, because the new CDU leader, Jan Redmann, has already announced that he will make education policy the main point of attack in the election campaign. : “Cleaning up the debris of the failed policies of the last 30 years requires broad and reliable support and clearly this was no longer the case,” Redmann said.
According to a survey, the right-wing populist AfD party is currently the strongest force in Brandenburg. The party has not been slow to pronounce itself with a triumphant declaration: “It is clear that the SPD parliamentary group has been annoying the leadership of the wife of the chancellor for so long that it is now abandoning the almost sinking ship,” said AfD state leader Birgit Bessin .
For the Left party, the reason for Ernst’s resignation is the failure of educational policy. “The reform of the daycare law was on the verge of failure, job cuts had been announced, the shortage of skilled workers had not been consistently addressed, the chaos was growing. The strategies of the policy of Ernst were unrecognizable,” said Sebastian Walter, leader of the parliamentary group.
Walter has asked Dietmar Woidke, current minister-president of the Land of Brandenburg, a reshuffle of the cabinet and referred to the polls for this. Almost two thirds of the inhabitants of Brandenburg – 62% – are dissatisfied with the work of the coalition. “Woidke had promised a new style of politics, he wanted to solve the daily problems of the people. And this government is further than ever from that.”
The Brandenburg Free Voters also welcomed Ernst’s resignation. The leader of the parliamentary group, Péter Vida, affirmed that the resignation “had been necessary for a long time”. Ernst had been “a burden on the Brandenburg educational scene”, and his resignation was “a belated admission of his own failure”. Especially during the period of restrictions due to the coronavirus pandemic, the “completely inadequate administrative structure and the criminally neglected progress in digitalization” had become apparent.
The minister-president, on the other hand, praised Ernst’s work in a statement. “He has served in difficult times with vision and a steady hand,” Woidke said. “I am sure that, in retrospect, his tenure will be associated with important milestones such as the continuous improvement of the childcare staff ratio and the introduction of zero contributions.”
The Brandenburg Greens also showed their respect to Ernst for his decision. “We are facing big challenges in education policy, such as the shortage of teachers and skilled workers and the implementation of the reform of the childcare law,” said Petra Budke, spokesperson for education policy.
The Education portfolio, which Ernst held since 2017, will pass into the hands of the until now State Secretary for Education, Steffen Freiberg. “One of his main areas of work is education in the digital age, which is another reason why I am sure that Freiberg is the right person for the tasks ahead of us and I am looking forward to working with him,” he announced. Woidke.
According to the criteria of The Trust Project