Bundestag - Niels Annen is no longer running for the Bundestag
The Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and long-standing Hamburg SPD member of parliament Niels Annen will not run in the next Bundestag election. In a letter to the SPD district chairman of Hamburg-Eimsbüttel, Milan Pein, the 51-year-old wrote on Sunday: "I am writing to you today because I have decided not to run for the German Bundestag in 2025." It is important to inform you about this decision now, so that there is enough time to find a successor, the letter reads, which is obtained by the German Press Agency. Several media had reported on this beforehand.
He will greatly miss his work as a Bundestag member, but perhaps this is exactly the right time for such a decision. "I am looking forward to bringing my qualifications in a completely different way," Annen wrote without going into specifics. Born in Hamburg, he has been an uninterrupted member of the German Bundestag since 2013. From 2018 to 2021, he was a State Minister in the Foreign Office, before he switched to being a Parliamentary State Secretary to Federal Minister of Economic Cooperation and Development Svenja Schulze (SPD).
The former Juso federal chairman (2001-2004) had also been a member of the Bundestag from 2005 to 2009 - and would have liked to continue, but surprisingly failed in the candidate selection in 2008. The Hamburg Juso chairman Danial Ilkhanipour won by a narrow margin. His candidacy was highly controversial. Critics accused Ilkhanipour of only announcing his candidacy after he had secured enough party friends as delegates for the constituency conference. Due to the dispute, the then SPD district chairman Jan Pörksen had to withdraw on election day. Ilkhanipour ultimately failed in the Bundestag election.
"The dispute over my re-nomination in 2008 hurt me, and the confrontation was ultimately not good for anyone," Annen now wrote to Pein. But it was a great experience to get a second chance four years later. "That's not self-evident in politics."
- Niels Annen, a German SPD member from Hamburg and the Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development, announced on Sunday that he will not participate in the 2025 Bundestag election.
- The German Press Agency obtained a letter from Annen, stating that he decided not to run for the Bundestag due to the need for a timely replacement.
- Annen served as a Bundestag member since 2013 and previously held positions at the Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs (from 2018 to 2021) and the Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development (as of 2021).
- In 2008, Annen faced controversy in his Bundestag re-nomination, which some critics believed was rigged in favor of Danial Ilkhanipour, the current Hamburg Juso chairman.
- Despite the controversy, Annen received a second chance four years later and continued his political career, which he now leaves with mixed feelings.
