Henning Otte, a CDU Bundestagsabgeordnete and defense expert, is set to become the new parliamentary defense commissioner. This is reported by the “Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland” (Thursday editions) citing leading Union circles. Otte, 56, from Celle in Lower Saxony, has been a member of the Bundestag since 2005 and will succeed the Social Democrat Eva Högl, whose term ends on May 25th. According to RND, there is no resistance to the Union taking over the post again. The common practice is that the Minister of Defense and the or the defense commissioner come from competing parties.
When Högl was elected in 2020, this was still the case. At that time, the Minister of Defense was Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer from the CDU. With the assumption of office of Christine Lambrecht in 2021 and Boris Pistorius in 2023, who both belong to the SPD, this changed.
Although the CDU Member of Parliament Kerstin Vieregge from North Rhine-Westphalia is also interested in the position, the report states that the Union group leaders believe Otte is the favorite and will take the position. Otte brings a lot of experience and can do it. He is a reserve officer, was formerly the defense policy spokesman of the Union group and was recently the deputy chair of the Defense Committee.